O.J. Simpson’s “trial of the century” over the 1994 killings of his ex-wife and her friend bared divisions over race and law enforcement and brought an intersection of sports, crime, entertainment and class that was hard to turn away from.
His death back in April brought an end to a life that had become defined by scrutiny over the killings. But he was just one of many influential and noteworthy people who died in 2024.
Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February, was a fierce political foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin. And the music industry lost a titan in producer Quincy Jones, who died in November.
There are also people who died that had rippling effects in Alabama, according to roll call report by the Associated Press of some noteworthy figures who died in 2024:
Peter Buxtun, 86, died on May 18:
The whistleblower who revealed that the U.S. government allowed hundreds of Black men in rural Alabama to go untreated for syphilis in what became known as the Tuskegee study.
Buxtun is revered as a hero to public health scholars and ethicists for his role in bringing to light in what's referred to as the most notorious medical research scandal in U.S. history. Documents that he provided to The Associated Press, and its subsequent investigation and reporting, led to a public outcry that ended the study in 1972.
In his complaints to federal health officials, he drew comparisons between the Tuskegee study and medical experiments Nazi doctors had conducted on Jews and other prisoners.
Federal scientists didn’t believe they were guilty of the same kind of moral and ethical sins, but after the Tuskegee study was exposed, the government put in place new rules about how it conducts medical research. Today, the study is often blamed for the unwillingness of some African Americans to participate in medical research.
Buxtun died of Alzheimer’s disease back in May in Rocklin, California.
Lilly Ledbetter, 86, died on Oct. 12:
A former Alabama factory manager whose lawsuit against her employer made her an icon of the equal pay movement and led to landmark wage discrimination legislation.
Ledbetter’s discovery that she was earning less than her male counterparts for doing the same job at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Alabama led to her lawsuit, which ultimately failed when the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that she had filed her complaint too late.
The court ruled that workers must file lawsuits within six months of first receiving a discriminatory paycheck — in Ledbetter’s case, years before she learned about the disparity through an anonymous letter.
Two years later, former President Barack Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which gave workers the right to sue within 180 days of receiving each discriminatory paycheck, not just the first one.
Ledbetter died back in October after a brief illness surrounded by loved ones, according to a brief statement from her family and an obituary sent by the team behind a film about her life. She is survived by her two children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Bobby Allison, 86, died on Nov. 9:
He was founder of racing’s “Alabama Gang” and a NASCAR Hall of Famer.
Allison moved to fourth on NASCAR’s Cup Series victory list in October when chairman Jim France recognized him as the winner of the Meyers Brothers Memorial at Bowman Gray Stadium in North Carolina in 1971.
The sanctioning body updated its record books to reflect the decision, giving Allison 85 wins and moving him out of a tie with Darrell Waltrip.
Allison was inducted into NASCAR’s second Hall of Fame class, in 2011. He was the 1983 NASCAR champion, finished second in the series title race five times, and a three-time winner of the Daytona 500.
He helped put NASCAR on the map with more than his driving. His infamous fight with Cale Yarborough in the closing laps of the 1979 Daytona 500 served as one of the sport’s defining moments.
He died at home in Mooresville, North Carolina last month. A cause of death wasn’t given, but Allison had been in declining health for years.
Read more on the roll call report by the Associated Press of noteworthy figures who died in 2024 by clicking here.
