O.J. Simpson was more than a football star. More than a pop culture icon or a defendant acquitted of murder.He became a symbol of America’s complicated relationship to race, celebrity, and justice. His family announced that he died of cancer Wednesday at age 76.The murder trial of O.J. Simpson became not only about one man and two victims, but the entire country. Coming up, we assess the legacy of a case, and a verdict, that put race in America on the stand. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
1. For much of his career, O.J. Simpson symbolized a post-racial America.
Orenthal James Simpson, known as O.J., died on Wednesday aged 76 after battling cancer.
Simpson was a football icon, an NFL hall of famer and a trailblazer. He starred in commercials, like this 1978 Hertz ad. The Hertz campaign, which ran for years, was one of the first times an American audience saw a Black spokesperson for a major national company. Simpson later went on to become a movie star.
Since his early days in the NFL, when asked about his feelings on issues like the civil rights movement, he’d say: “I’m not Black.
