Born in Decatur, Nebraska, Whitacre attended the public schools, Hiram (Ohio) College, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He engaged as a manufacturer of hollow building tile. He served as delegate to the 1912 Democratic National Convention. He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1908 to the Sixty-first Congress. He had a home built in Brown Township, Carroll County, Ohio. During the 1920 presidential campaign, both candidates, Warren G Harding and James M. Cox visited his home.^[1]

Whitacre was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-second and Sixty-third Congresses (March 4, 1911 – March 3, 1915).

He announced he would not run for a third term in 1914:

All I've done since I've been in Washington has been to sit around and try to look wise, and that's what any man has to do who isn't willing to barter his convictions for political expediency. ... No man who wants to be intellectually honest has any business in congress.

— J. J. Whitacre, 1913^[2][3]

He resumed his former manufacturing pursuits. He served as president of the Whitacre Engineering Co. and the Whitacre-Greer Fireproofing Co. He was nominated in 1928 for the 18th district, but lost. He died in Miami, Florida, December 2, 1938. He was interred in Magnolia Cemetery, Magnolia, Ohio.

• United States Congress. "John J. Whitacre (id: W000347)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

  This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

• John J. Whitacre at Find a Grave