Yusef Salaam, Member of the Central Park Five, Wins NYC City Council Primary

Nikki McCann Ramirez
·3 min read
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In August of 1990, Yusef Salaam, then 15 years old, told the judge at his sentencing hearing that he looked at “this legal lynching as a test by my God Allah.” On Wednesday, nearly 23 years later, Salaam — an exonerated man, poet, author, and activist — has been declared the winner of a New York City Council primary in his home district of Harlem.

Salaam was one of the Central Park Five, a group of teens wrongfully convicted for the rape and assault of a jogger in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. He served seven years in juvenile detention before his conviction was overturned in 2002.

Salaam carried the Democratic vote by a large margin last month in a district unlikely to elect a Republican in November’s general election. The New York City Board of Elections conducted its ranked-choice tabulation on Wednesday, showing Salaam with 64 percent of the vote compared to 36 percent for his nearest competitor.

“This is a victory for justice, dignity and decency for the Harlem community we love,” he said in a statement, according to The New York Times. “It’s a victory in support of not turning our backs on those in need, for saying we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and for saying the only way for all of us to thrive is to believe in the promise we all have.”

Salaam teared up while speaking to supporters as the results came in last month. “Harlem is the place that gave me a second chance,” he said. “I am my ancestors wildest dream.”

Salaam’s campaign focused heavily on bettering the lives of those in the community that raised him, including through housing justice, economic advancement, and police and law enforcement reform. “​​I’ve often said that those who have been close to the pain should have a seat at the table,” he told the Associated Press in an interview last month.

In 1989, Salaam and four others — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise — were accused of attempted murder, rape, and assault of jogger Trisha Meili. The accused were Black and Latino youths between the ages of 14 and 16. Meili was a white woman in her late twenties. The attack was the subject of frenzied media coverage and public outrage.

Former President Donald Trump infamously purchased several full-page spreads in various newspapers calling for the death penalty to be reinstated. He has never apologized despite the exonerations.

Prosecutor Linda Fairstein, at the time considered the gold standard for sexual crimes investigations, plowed forward with her indictment of the youths despite contradictory witness statements and an absence of forensic evidence linking any of the accused to the crime. All five were convicted.

It wasn’t until 2002 that another man, Matias Reyes, confessed to having committed the crime. DNA evidence confirmed it. The convictions of the Exonerated Five — as they came to be known — were overturned, but by then great damage had been done to the lives of those accused, including Salaam.

The needs Salaam has identified in his community relate to his own experiences as a victim of false imprisonment and the aftermath of life as a convict. “When I came back here from prison, I couldn’t afford my apartment,” Salaam told Air Mail in June. “I remember that big, orange eviction sticker on my door. I remember the shame I felt when my neighbors saw that.”

He added, “We have to climb out of the gravitational pull of all the negatives that pull us down.”

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