Alan Hurwitz

Teacher and activist, Alan Hurwitz, obtained from The New York Times.

Alan Hurwitz had just been released from Butner prison at the time of his death. He got out of prison, but never made it home to be with his family. Butner never tested him for COVID-19, but according to his friend Travis McGhee, also incarcerated there, Alan was visibly ill. “He kept telling us that he was OK, but I seen the look on his face, that he wasn’t OK,” McGhee told The Marshall Project. 

On May 20, 2020, he was released and supposed to fly home to Oregon. During a layover, airline officials got him an ambulance because he had chest pains and a 104 degree fever. 

The nurses at the hospital arranged for Alan to video chat with loved ones. He enjoyed sharing memories, stories, and singing with his children and grandchildren for 5 days, until doctors induced a coma to put him on a ventilator. 

On June 6, 2020, Alan passed away at age 79 in a Denver hospital. In an interview with The Marshall Project, his daughter, Laura, said, “The nurse was holding his hand. He passed and looked peaceful.” 

The Bureau of Prisons does not count Alan as one of Butner’s dead. Even so, the prison has recorded more deaths than any other federal facility, with at least 15 other persons who were incarcerated falling victim to COVID-19. 

Alan was born in Detroit in 1941 and was a passionate man who accomplished many things during his life. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, got his Bachelor’s degree, taught middle school English and social studies, and was a Peace Corps administrator in Kenya. 

Alan smiling, obtained from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Alan was a dedicated anti-racism activist who spent years of his life advocating for the desegregation of the Detroit public school system. He said he fought everyday to advance racial equality and considered it his life’s work.

Laura remembers, “Even at a young age, for my first report in second grade, he helped me write a report on apartheid in South Africa. We were educated very young in the world of social justice. And for my dad, most of his life was dedicated to working for and within Black communities, mostly in Detroit.”

Alan continued to teach while in prison. “He found his place in prison,” his daughter says. He taught his fellow residents “to read and write; he taught them history.” He helped other individuals who were incarcerated do research and write court filings. Laura continued, “He never stopped teaching about his values and philosophy.” Travis McGhee, one of the dozens of people he helped stated that Alan was “doing it for nothing. He just wanted to see you get out.” Those who knew him will remember social justice and activism as his legacy.

Laura says if her father could see the many people marching in the streets for racial justice now, he would be ecstatic. “That was his greater wish and what he fought for all his life. And it’s happening right now on the streets.” 

This memorial was written by MOL team member Caroline Harlow with information from reporting by Richard Sandomir of The New York Times, Sam Sokol of The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Joseph Neff of The Marshall Project, and Keegan Hamilton of Vice.