Global Courant
Yusef Salaam, one of the acquitted ‘Central Park Five’, has won a Democratic primary for a seat on the New York City Council, almost securing an eventual victory. It’s an unlikely feat for a political novice who, as a teenager, was wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for raping and beating a white jogger in Central Park.
The Associated Press refrained from calling the race on election night, but votes released Wednesday showed him the clear winner to represent Central Harlem. Salaam is not expected to face a serious challenge in November’s general election, if any.
It’s time, he said, for “another renaissance in Harlem.”
“To have a voice from a person who has been pushed to the margins of life – someone who has actually been one of those who have been counted down – is finally sitting at the table,” Salaam said in an interview on Wednesday.
“Harlem is such a special place that it’s known as the Black Mecca,” he said. What happens in Harlem “reverberates around the world.”
EXEMPT ‘CENTRAL PARK FIVE’ MEMBER TAKES COMMANDOLE LEAD IN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY FOR COUNCIL SEAT IN NYC
Salaam and the four other black and Latino teens from Harlem became known as the Central Park Five after their 1989 arrest in the headline rape, one of the city’s most notorious and racially charged crimes. He served nearly seven years in prison before the group was exonerated through DNA evidence.
His Outsiders campaign prevailed against two political veterans — New York Assemblyman Inez Dickens, 73, and Al Taylor, 65 — in his first bid for public office. Democratic Socialist Kristin Richardson Jordan, the incumbent council member, dropped out of the race in May but remained on the ballot.
Salaam declared victory on election night with a total of just over 50% of the vote, although an unknown number of absentee ballots had yet to be counted. But his lead over Dickens, his closest competitor, seemed insurmountable, and both she and Taylor relented. New York City is still charting ballots arriving late that could potentially push him back above the 50% threshold, in which case he will have won without the benefit of ranked choice voting .
New York City Council candidate Yusef Salaam speaks during an interview on May 24, 2023 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
“When I think about the things we need most, obviously at the top of everyone’s list are affordable housing, education and safe streets,” Salaam told the AP.
While all three candidates focused on promoting affordable housing, controlling gentrification and alleviating poverty in Harlem, Salaam capitalized on its celebrity in neighborhoods that consider the Central Park Five – now the Exonerated Five – living symbols of the injustices faced by black and Latinos. residents who make up about three-quarters of the district’s population.
NYC ‘CENTRAL PARK FIVE’ CO-ASSISTANT STEVEN LOPEZ EXEMPTED NEARLY 30 YEARS LATER
“He’s from the neighborhood, was in jail and then turned around,” said voter Carnation France. “He’s trying to do something for the people.”
Others were looking for a change in leadership.
Zambi Mwendwa said she voted for Salaam because he is “a new face”. She said her decision had nothing to do with the injustices in his past.
“I heard him talk. He seems to be talking about the things I care about,” Mwendwa said on election day.
According to Amani Onyioha, a partner at Sole Strategies, who ran phone banks and hired residents on behalf of Salaam, Salaam’s lack of experience in public office would have worked to his advantage.
“In a time like this, when people are looking for a hero, they are looking for someone who can relate to them,” Onyioha said.
“I think people saw him as a survivor,” Onyioha said. “He was vindicated and in the end the system worked for him.”
Salaam moved to Georgia shortly after being released and became an activist, motivational speaker, author and poet. He did not return until December to launch his campaign.
Salaam was 15 when he was arrested, along with Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise, who served between five and 12 years in prison before prosecutors agreed to re-examine the case. DNA evidence and a confession eventually linked a serial rapist and murderer to the attack, but he was not prosecuted because too much time had passed. Their convictions were vacated in 2002, and the city eventually agreed to a legal settlement to pay the acquitted men a combined $41 million.
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A 2012 Ken Burns documentary called “The Central Park Five” reawakened the public’s attention to the saga of men’s childhood. More recently, a 2019 television miniseries, “When They See Us,” drew attention again just before the Black Lives Matter movement was launched in response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Donald Trump, who ran ads in four newspapers before the group went on trial in 1989 with the screaming headline “Bring back the death penalty,” later refused to apologize, saying all five had pleaded guilty — a reference to their coerced confessions. Salaam reminded voters of that in April by running his own full-page ad with the headline “Bring Back Justice & Fairness” in response to one of Trump’s impeachments.
