Famous boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter died on Sunday, April 20 at the age of 76. 

Carter struggled with prostate cancer and died in his Toronto home while he was sleeping, according to CNN. 

The former middleweight boxer who was wrongly accused of murder and spent 19 years in prison, became a symbol of racial injustice and discrimination in the late 1960s to '70s. 

 In 1966, three white people were shot and killed by two black men at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Peterson, N.J. Carter and his long-time friend John Artis were convicted in front of an all-white jury, The conviction was primarily based on testimony by two thieves who later recanted their stories. 

"Hatred and bitterness and anger only consume the vessel that contains them. It doesn't hurt another soul," he told CNN. "If I were to allow myself to continue to feel that anger and bitterness of being a victim, I would have never survived prison itself. I had to overcome those things."

Carter spent 19 years in prison for the murders and was released in November 1985 after years of appeals and public advocacy, which gathered support from celebrities such as Mohammed Ali and actor Burt Reynolds. Bob Dylan even wrote a song called "Hurricane" in 1975 about Carter's ordeal. In 1999, a film was made chronicling Carter's life and starred Denzel Washington, who earned an Academy Award nomination for the role. 

According to AP, Carter went 27-12-1 with 19 knockouts. He won against two-division champ Emilie Griffith in the first round on 1963.