The Savage City (La Cité Sauvage)....

In Memory of George Whitmore Jr.

Whitmore requested that he be cremated; his remains are in the urn on the table.

Today, George Whitmore was laid to rest. He was an important figure in the race history of New York City and the United States. And he was a good man.

I wrote about Whitmore's horrible ordeal at the hands of a racist criminal justice system, and the effect that had on his life, in an Op-ed article in the NY Times (link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/opinion/who-will-mourn-george-whitmore.html?hpw).

At a funeral parlor in Cape May Courthouse, NJ, I joined Whitmore's daughter, Regina, and his extended family of children and grandchildren. They asked me to speak, and I talked about how George's strength during his ordeal back in the 1960s and early 1970s helped shine a light on an UNJUST justice system. Whitmore paid a heavy price for what he was put through, but he died without bitterness or rancor.

If you don't know the story of George Whitmore, please read the NY Times article and also a recent obituary about Whitmore in the Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/nyregion/george-whitmore-jr-68-dies-falsely-confessed-to-3-murders-in-1964.html?pagewanted=all) Please spread the word, teach your children, friends and loved ones about this important episode in our shared civil rights history.