VERY MOVING NY TIMES BLOG PIECE

Who Will Mourn George Whitmore?

By T. J. ENGLISH

Published: October 12, 2012

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I RECEIVED news this week of the death of George Whitmore Jr., an occurrence noted, apparently, by no one in the public arena.

That Whitmore could die without a single mention in the media is a commentary on a city and nation that would rather bury and forget the difficult aspects of our shared history.

Forty-eight years ago, as a New York City teenager, Whitmore was initiated into an ordeal at the hands of a racist criminal justice system. For a time, his story rattled the news cycle. He was chewed up and spit out: an ill-prepared kid vilified as a murderer, then championed as an emblem of injustice and, finally, cast aside. That he survived his tribulations and lived to the age of 68 was a miracle.

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