NEW YORK — Yusef Salaam, an exonerated member of the “Central Park Five,” believes everything in his life happened for a reason. More than two decades after spending most of his teenage years behind bars for a crime he never committed, Salaam declared victory Wednesday in a Democratic primary race for a New York City Council seat in Harlem.
“I call this story a love story between God and his people,” Salaam, 49, told Yahoo News. His victory all but guarantees that he will win the general election in the heavily Democratic district.
For many of his supporters, the political newcomer’s victory represents a shift in a neighborhood with a long history of supporting the political establishment, which critics say has historically done little for the most marginalized. For Salaam, an activist and father of 10 who is committed to dramatically improving the quality of life in Harlem, victory represents fate.
“We have suffered for a long time and we need to be restored,” he said.
Case “Central Park 5”
Salaam was one of five teenagers in 1989 – then just 14 – who were wrongfully arrested and imprisoned for the rape and assault of a jogger in New York’s Central Park. The group is infamously known as the “Central Park Five”, and Donald Trump, then known as a hot-headed real estate mogul, boosted the national profile of the case that year, after running advertisements for a full page in several major city newspapers, including the New York Times, calling on New York to pass the death penalty before any of the teenagers stand trial.
The five young men were exonerated in 2002, when DNA evidence linked another person to the crime. They sued New York City and the case was later settled. But the young men’s lives, and many of their hopes and dreams, had already been turned upside down.
Salaam, who left New York for Georgia shortly after his release from prison in 1997, returned to Harlem in hopes of revitalizing the community that had helped shape it. With a focus on increased affordable housing, access to mental health and better public safety, suggests Salaam, there’s no reason Harlem can’t regain the appeal it once was. known worldwide in the 1920s.
“Harlem is known around the world as the dark Mecca,” he said. “Harlem is such a special place in black society because it created the first Renaissance. Imagine if we had the opportunity to create this second Harlem Renaissance. How beautiful, magnificent, powerful would that be? »
In the launch edition of a new series, Yahoo News asked Yusef Salaam 3 big questions. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
1. Yahoo News: You called former President Trump recent legal problems “karma”, alluding to the fact that he called for the execution of the Central Park Five in 1989. Yet, decades later, he is the Republican frontrunner for the third straight time, and some black americans think it is the best option. What would you say to black Americans, and specifically black men, who might consider voting for him in 2024?
Yusef Salam: The worst part about having a choice in America is that we don’t prepare to be the ones in charge. We tend to believe that we only have what is presented before us, and within that there is an assumption that we can be like Trump. I remember years ago when I heard one of my favorite rappers, Nas, say, “I want to be rich like Trump. The truth is, we could never be a Trump, because a Trump has the complexion of acceptance, while a Yusef has the complexion of rejection. Because it is [how] the system sees us.
If we look at Donald Trump’s story as it’s not just about me – forget the fact that we’re talking about his [failed] register as an owner and a businessman and so on – not all experiences are good. But it’s the only choice we think we have.
When you look at people like Donald Trump, he very clearly represents white supremacy and white male dominance. He might not say it himself, of course, but look at the people he surrounds himself with in his campaign and the fact that they want to galvanize their base. … So to those black men and black women who see Trump as the answer, they also need to educate themselves.
2. Crime is a major concern for people across the country, and especially for residents of Harlem. Although you brag about improvements in public safety, a recent Pew poll shows that the largest racial justice movement, Black Lives Matter, is steadily losing support. Where does the justice reform movement go from here?
Yusef Salam: The justice reform movement must keep its mind on the prize. The price has always been to make sure there is real justice, because the opposite of justice is what we have experienced in America. Dr. James Baldwin has always said, “To be African American is to be African without memory and American without privilege. And so here we are in a situation where we have no privileges in America. Now is an opportunity to continue to stay on task and stay on point.
If you only take it for a moment, then we will lose sight of what is really at stake. We have to do the tremendous work of nation building [our] movements. It’s time for movement. When we do this work, we plan: instead of just the weekend, we start planning for cycles of 50 to 100 years.
3. In a New Yorker video interview five years ago, you quoted Nelson Mandela, who said that “[Being angry and bitter] it’s like drinking poison and expecting the enemy to die,” adding that it does nothing to the person and does everything to you. But you also said that your experiences still haunt you. What does freedom look like, both personally and professionally, to you?
Yusef Salam: Freedom is the ability to be able to achieve your goal, to find your purpose, and to be able to be on task. I have always said that I represent the microcosm of the macrocosm of cases and stories like mine. It’s just the beauty of our story that we had a magnifying glass that brought it to light and a megaphone strapped to it.
The worst thing is that your life is interrupted in such a terrible way. And feeling like you were born from a mistake, feeling like you’re not worth it. To be able to be truly free is to know that you were born on purpose and then you have a purpose. When that purpose becomes clearer and you are able to assume the position of leadership in your own life, that is true freedom. This is real justice. This is true equality.