My fellow Black students celebrated OJ Simpson getting away with murder. Not me | Opinion

In the fall of 1995, I was a student at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg when O.J. Simpson was acquitted of double murder.

On the day he was found not guilty, a group of mostly African American students had gathered on campus to watch the verdict read on live television. As I recall, their eyes were glued to a nearby television in the common area of the student union. After the verdict was announced, a few white students passing through looked on in disbelief as Black students erupted in jubilation.

I was not among them.

In the early- to mid-1990s, the racial strife on campus was evident. I was fortunate to play on a football team who bonded over the sport. We shared a brotherhood that transcended the divide.

In April 1992, UCM students marched across campus and damaged businesses in downtown Warrensburg after Los Angeles Police Department officers were acquitted of wrongdoing in the beating of motorist Rodney King. With Simpson’s trial, I guess the tables had turned and a Black man was set free.

I’ve long held that Simpson got away with murder in the 1994 stabbing deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman. Evidence — an unexplained deep cut on Simpson’s hand, the Bronco-led police chase that preceded his arrest and the damning lack of a solid alibi — proved to me he was the likely culprit.

Simpon, 76, died Thursday from prostate cancer, according to his family.

On the social network X, his family wrote: “On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.”

I woke up Thursday morning planning to write about the legal troubles of Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice. Then the man known simply as O.J. died and I scrapped that idea. Simpson’s death doesn’t change my mind — he killed Brown Simpson and Goldman.

News alerts that the former college and pro football player had died pinged my mobile phone shortly before 10 a.m. I was driving to the Kansas City Public Library’s branch on the Country Club Plaza. I was scheduled to meet with a group of student ambassadors with American Public Square at Jewell. We were there to prepare for a town hall discussion on gun violence April 25 at the branch. I volunteered to serve as a roving reporter for the student-led event, “Triggering Change: Engaging Community to Combat Gun Violence.”

I strolled into the library and sat down at a table with a group of young people. I briefly introduced myself. They asked me about my job duties and what I was working on. After I mentioned Simpson’s death and Rice’s pending arrest was on my radar, one student asked: “Did you read his book?”

Nah, I said. Hard pass. She had, as did another student seated at the table, they told me. I was surprised that high school students so young knew who Simpson was.

O.J. was a double murderer, I continued. I had no interest in reading his hypothetical screed, “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer” ghostwritten in 2006 by author Pablo Fenjves. Publisher HarperCollins eventually canceled the work before widespread distribution.

Goldman’s family later republished the book with proceeds benefiting the Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice, a California-based nonprofit.

As news of Simpson’s death dominates the headline, our thoughts and prayers should be for the families of Simpson’s victims.

At this moment, take time to think of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Neither deserved the brutal manner in which their lives were taken.