Was Rubin "Hurricane" Carter framed for triple murder? And if so, why?

Part I: Was Carter an Activist?

Hurricane Carter says he was framed for triple murder because he was a black activist and the police wanted to silence him. But there's no evidence that Carter was an activist in the 60's.

Part II: Were the police "out to get" Carter?

There's no evidence that the police framed Carter or even went out of their way to harass him.

He was never "silenced."

Carter tries to spin his violent Saturday Evening Post interview -- says he was speaking out in favor of black self-defense.

Carter's bogus claim:

"I'm not in jail for committing murder. I'm in jail partly because I'm a black man in America, where the powers that be will only allow a black man to be an entertainer or a criminal. While I was free on the streets - with whatever limited freedom I had on the streets - as a prizefighter, I was characterized as an entertainer.... But when I didn't want to see people brutalized any longer - and when I'd speak out against that brutality, no matter who committed the brutality, black people or white people - I was harassed for my beliefs." Penthouse Magazine,1975

O.K.... so when did "Hurricane" Carter speak out against brutality,
and what did he say?

Carter's supporters don't have a lot of examples to draw on to prove that Carter spoke out against brutality. In all the articles and books written about Carter, and in the movie, only one example is given, and it's the same example: they refer to an article in the Saturday Evening Post.

But the actual quote from that article is:

"During last summer's Harlem riots, for instance, he suggested, in jest, to Elwood Tuck, his closest friend, 'Let's get guns and go up there and get us some of those police. I know I can get four or five before they get me. How many can you get?'"

Is that all?

That's all.  It isn't much to build a reputation as a civil rights activist on, is it? In fact, it looks like a second-hand quote from Carter's friend and not a direct quote at all! Also, he isn't speaking out against brutality, as he claimed (see above) he's speaking out in favor of brutality.

If he did, his activities have left no trace. There are no quotes, no newspaper clippings, no photographs in any of the four books written by and about Carter that show him speaking out or doing anything political for the civil rights cause.

Rubin Carter, civil rights phony

Carter's claims of civil rights activism -- these claims are undocumented,
and on further examination turn out to be bogus.

• Carter claims he attended the March on Washington, D.C. in 1963 at which Martin Luther King gave his "I Have A Dream Speech." Of course, so did Charlton Heston and Bobby Darin. They were mentioned in the New York Times coverage. Rubin Carter wasn't. Neither was he mentioned in his hometown newspaper, which named other people from New Jersey who attended the March.
  

• He says he did not attend the March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, though he says he was personally invited by Martin Luther King, Jr. Being invited but not going doesn't make you an activist, besides, this story is highly suspect because Carter was in Europe at the time he supposedly got a phone call from King.
  

• He says he got "hung up" in the (Los Angeles) Watts Riots, but he doesn't explain what that means and again, there are no quotes, no newspaper articles to document his involvement.
  

• He says he smuggled guns to the ANC in South Africa, but that of course was completely secret, so presumably no one knew about it and therefore he couldn't be harassed for it. Besides, the story is just that -- a story.

Activist or Publicity Hound?

Carter poses with a monocle after a fight in England in the spring of 1965.

The real activist in the Carter family was Rubin's cousin, Ed.

Ed was the Passaic County chairman for C.O.R.E. (the Congress for Racial Equality). Compared to Ed, Carter was no activist. You can read more about Ed here. Carter seems to have "borrowed" much of his activist credentials from his late cousin.

Even Carter's biography says:

"Before his own arrest in 1966 (for the Lafayette Grill murders), Carter had never been political. He was rarely motivated by any cause beyond his own success."

Nevertheless, journalists uncritically accepted Carter's claim that he was an activist. Selwyn Raab, in an award-winning New York Times article about the Lafayette Grill murders, wrote:

"Outside of the ring, Mr. Carter was active in civil-rights activities in Paterson. During press interviews in the nineteen-sixties he was outspoken about alleged police brutality in Paterson, other New Jersey cities and New York. At the time of his arrest he was a street worker for an antipoverty program.... "

This is just one of many examples where journalists took Carter at his word about his activism.