LeRoy Whitfield

Biography

LeRoy Whitfield (September 19, 1969 – October 9, 2005) was an African-American freelance journalist who chronicled his personal experience with HIV infection and AIDS. He was hailed by many as one of the nation's leading journalists reporting on AIDS in the African-American community. Whitfield was born in Chicago, and pursued post-secondary studies at historically-Black Barber-Scotia College (Concord, NC), Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), University of Chicago, and DePaul University (Chicago, IL). He was diagnosed with HIV during 1990 at the age of 19 and opted not to take antiretroviral medications due to their possible side effects ranging from fatigue and nausea to blurred vision. His doctors, though, advised otherwise. He had worries about clinic doctors who "just didn't get him". After a Harvard Medical School researcher - "to understand specimens like me" - studied him as a longtime survivor of HIV who had never taken AIDS medications, Whitfield nicknamed himself "Marathon Man".

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