Black History Month: Rise Celestial Studios Honors Rubin “The Hurricane” Carter

I was young when I read the book. I was young when I watched the movie based on the book.

But after reading and learning of the real life story of Rubin Carter, my mind was no longer that of a young boy but one of an enlightened man now very aware to the horrors that can happen in a blink of an eye. To the harsh reality of what being black in America meant back then and what in some capacity it means now.

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American–Canadianmiddleweightboxer, wrongfully convicted of murder[1] and later released following a petition of habeas corpus after serving almost 20 years in prison.

The Hurricane is probably one of Denzel’s best acting performances in his career. The movie was touching and I am sure Denzel felt the full weight of the challenge faced playing such an iconic Boxer. No one but Denzel could bring that much presence and passion on the big screen.

-CEO/President of Rise Celestial Studios shares his experience regarding Hurricane Carter.

In 1966, Carter, and his co-accused, John Artis, were arrested for a triple homicide which was committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey. Shortly after the killings at 2:30 am, a car, which contained Carter, Artis and a third acquaintance, was stopped by police outside the bar while its occupants were on their way home from a nearby nightclub. They were allowed to go on their way, but after dropping off the third man, Carter and Artis were stopped while they were passing the bar a second time, 45 minutes later, and both of them were arrested.

Carter and Artis were interrogated for 17 hours, released, then re-arrested weeks later. In 1967, they were convicted of all three murders, and given life sentences, served in Rahway State Prison; a retrial in 1976 upheld their sentences, but it was overturned in 1985. Prosecutors declined to try the case a third time after their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed.

Carter’s autobiography, titled The Sixteenth Round, written while he was in prison, was published in 1974 by Viking Press. The story inspired the 1975 Bob Dylan song “Hurricane” and the 1999 film The Hurricane (with Denzel Washington playing Carter). From 1993 to 2005, Carter served as executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (later rebranded as Innocence Canada).

In 2019, the case was the focus of a 13-part BBC podcast series, The Hurricane Tapes. The series was based on interviews which were conducted with survivors, case notes which were taken during the original investigations, and 40 hours of recorded interviews which were conducted with Carter by the author Ken Klonsky who cited them in his 2011 book The Eye of the Hurricane.