 Ted Patrick was born in what he calls "a red-light district" of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in which he was surrounded by "thieves, prostitutes, murderers [and] pimps".He dropped out of high school in tenth grade to help support his family, worked a variety of jobs and opened nightclub, then became co-chairman of the Nineteenth Ward in Chattanooga.At the age of twenty-five, he left his wife and infant son in Tennessee, and went with a friend to San Diego, California, where he became an activist for the black community.