Candidate for NYC Council Yusef Salaam Hopes to Use His Experiences to Create Change

NEW YORK (WWN) – Outside a Harlem subway station, Yusef Salaam, a candidate for New York City Council, hurriedly greeted voters streaming out along Malcolm X Boulevard. For some, no introductions were necessary. They knew his face, his name and his life story.

The Central Park Five

But to the unfamiliar, Salaam needed only to introduce himself as one of the Central Park Five — one of the Black or Brown teenagers, ages 14 to 16, wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for the rape and beating of a white woman jogging in Central Park on April 19, 1989.

Now 49, Salaam is hoping to join the power structure of a city that once worked to put him behind bars.

Competitive Democratic Primary

Salaam is one of three candidates in a competitive June 27 Democratic primary almost certain to decide who will represent a Harlem district unlikely to elect a Republican in November’s general election. With early voting already begun, he faces two seasoned political veterans: New York Assembly members Al Taylor, 65, and Inez Dickens, 73, who previously represented Harlem on the City Council.

The incumbent, democratic socialist Kristin Richard Jordan, dropped out of the race in May following a rocky first term.

Wrongfully Convicted

Now known to some as the “Exonerated Five,” Salaam and the four others — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — served between five and 12 years in prison for the 1989 rape before a reexamination of the case led to their convictions being vacated in 2002.

DNA evidence linked another man, a serial rapist, to the attack. The city ultimately agreed in a legal settlement to pay the exonerated men $41 million.

Salaam, who was arrested at age 15, served nearly seven years behind bars.

Addressing Crises in Harlem

“When people look at me and they they know my story, they resonate with it,” said Salaam, the father of 10 children. “But now here we are 34 years later, and I’m able to use that platform that I have and repurpose the pain, help people as we climb out of despair.”

Those pain points are many in a district that has some of the city’s most entrenched poverty and highest rent burdens.

Opponents Criticize Salaam’s Lack of Experience

Salaam said he’s eager to address those crises and more. His opponents say he doesn’t know enough about how local government works to do so.

“No one should go through what my opponent went through, especially as a child. Years later, after he returns to New York, Harlem is in crisis. We don’t have time for a freshman to learn the job, learn the issues and re-learn the community he left behind for Stockbridge, Georgia,” Dickens said, referring to Salaam’s decision to leave the city after his release from prison. He returned to New York in December.

A New Voice

Taylor knows that Salaam’s celebrity is an advantage in the race.

“I think that folks will identify with him and the horrendous scenario that he and his colleagues underwent for a number of years in a prison system that treated him unfairly and unjustly,” Taylor said.

“But his is one of a thousand in this city that we are aware of,” Taylor added. “It’s the Black reality.”

Harlem voter Raynard Gadson, 40, is cognizant of that factor.

“As a Black man myself, I know exactly what’s at stake,” Gadson said. “I don’t think there’s anybody more passionate about challenging systemic issues on the local level in the name of justice because of what he went through,” he said of Salaam.

Endorsements and Apologies

All three have received key endorsements. Black activist Cornel West has backed Salaam. Dickens has the backing of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and former New York U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel. Taylor is supported by the Carpenter’s Union.

Unlikely is an apology from Donald Trump, who in 1989 placed newspaper ads before the group went on trial with the blaring headline, “Bring back the death penalty.” The ads did not specifically mention any of the five, but Salaam said the context made it clear.

When asked by a reporter in 2019 if he would ever apologize, Trump said there were “people on both sides” of the matter.

“They admitted their guilt,” Trump had said, of the Central Park Five, referring to confessions that the five later said were coerced. “Some of the prosecutors,” Trump added “think the city should never have settled that case. So, we’ll leave it at that.”

When Trump appeared in a Manhattan court in April on charges of falsifying business records, Salaam mocked him with his own ad on social media that visually mimicked Trump’s from long ago.

“Over 30 years ago, Donald Trump took out full page ads calling for my execution,” Salaam tweeted above the ad, headlined: “Bring Back Justice & Fairness.”

An earlier version of this report had an incorrect spelling of Cornel West’s first name.