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Proclamation honoring in memoriam Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the middleweight boxer whose wrongful murder conviction became an international symbol of racial injustice.
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WHEREAS, it is the duty of Allegheny County Council to recognize and honor outstanding individuals in both the County and across the nation for their extraordinary achievements. One such individual is famed boxer and advocate for the wrongly imprisoned, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter; and
WHEREAS, Rubin was born in 1937 and was sent to a juvenile reform center at age 12 as the result of an assault charge against him. He joined the army in 1954 and first began boxing on a tour in West Germany; and
WHEREAS, upon his return to the United States, Rubin was arrested for a series of muggings and was incarcerated for four years. In 1961, after his release from prison, he began his boxing career. Rubin regularly performed in boxing matches at Madison Square Garden and at locations overseas; and
WHEREAS, in 1967, Rubin’s life changed forever when he was accused and found guilty of the murder of two men and one woman in Paterson, New Jersey. Despite a retrial of the case in 1976 and maintaining that he was innocent, Rubin was held in prison for 19 years. With support from the public and celebrities such as fellow boxer Muhammad Ali, art director George Lois and music legend Bob Dylan, who wrote the song “Hurricane” about Rubin’s ordeal, Rubin was freed from prison in 1985. U.S. District Judge H. Lee Sarokin wrote that Rubin’s prosecution had likely been due to racial prejudice; and
WHEREAS, after his release from prison, Rubin wrote an autobiography entitled “The Sixteenth Round.” He moved to Toronto, serving as the Executive Director of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted for 12 years. In 1999, the film The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington, was released and chronicled the story of Rubin’s wrongful imprisonment. Rubin continued to advocate for wrongfully convicted priso...
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