Yusef Salaam has announced his candidacy for a seat on the New York City Council in a Harlem district.Salaam is among the wrongly convicted “Central Park Five,” a group of black and brown teenagers who were suspected of beating and raping a white woman in 1989.Salaam will face New York Assembly members Al Taylor and Inez Dickens in a hotly contested Democratic primary. The district’s political leanings make its Democratic candidates almost certain winners in the general election.
Outside a Harlem subway station, Yusef Salaam, a candidate for New York City Hall, hastily waved to voters exiting Malcolm X Boulevard. For some, no introductions were necessary. They knew his face, his name and his life story.
But to the uninitiated, Salaam need only 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 hopes to join the power structure of a city that once worked to put him behind bars.
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“I’ve often said that those who have been close to the pain should have a seat at the table,” Salaam said during an interview in his campaign office.
Salaam is one of three candidates in a competitive June 27 Democratic primary that will almost certainly decide who will represent a Harlem district that is unlikely to elect a Republican in the November general election. With early voting already underway, she faces two seasoned political veterans: New York Assembly members Al Taylor, 65, and Inez Dickens, 73, who previously represented Harlem on the City Council.
Socialist Democrat Kristin Richard Jordan dropped out of the race in May after a rocky first term.
Now known to some as the “Exonerated Five,” Salaam and the other four — 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 brought convictions overturned in 2002.
DNA tests linked another man, a serial rapist, to the attack. The city eventually agreed in a legal settlement to pay the exonerated men $41 million.
Salaam, who was arrested at age 15, served almost seven years behind bars.
“When people look at me and know my story, it resonates,” said Salaam, the father of 10. “But now here we are 34 years later, and I’m able to use this platform that I have and repurpose the pain, help people as we move 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.
Poverty in Central Harlem is about 10 points higher than the city’s rate of 18 percent, according to data compiled by New York University’s Furman Center. More than a quarter of Harlem residents pay more than half of their income on rent. And the district has some of the city’s highest homelessness rates for children.
Salaam said he is eager to address these crises and more. His opponents say he doesn’t know enough about how local government works to do that.
“No one should have to go through what my opponent went through, especially as a child. Years later, after returning to New York, Harlem is in crisis. We don’t have time for a freshman to learn the job, learn the problems and relearn the community he left behind. Stockbridge, Georgia,” Dickens said, referring to Salaam’s decision to leave town after being released from prison. He returned to New York in December.
Taylor knows Salaam’s celebrity is a career advantage.
“I think people will identify with him and the horrific scenario that he and his colleagues endured for several years in a prison system that treated him unfairly and unfairly,” Taylor said.
“But his is one of a thousand in this city that we know of,” Taylor added. “It’s the black reality.”
Harlem voter Raynard Gadson, 40, is aware of this factor.
“As a black man, I know exactly what’s at stake,” Gadson said. “I don’t think there’s anyone more passionate about challenging systemic issues at the local level in the name of justice for what happened,” he said of Salaam.
During a recent debate televised by Spectrum News, Salaam repeatedly mentioned his arrest, prompting Taylor to exclaim that he too had been arrested: At 16, he was caught carrying a machete, a charge that was later dismissed by a judge ready to give him a second chance
“We all want affordable housing, we all want safe streets, we all want smarter police, we all want jobs, we all need education,” Salaam said of the candidates’ common goals. What he offers, he said, is a new voice that can speak to the struggles of his community.
“I have no background in politics,” he admitted. “I have a great track record in the 34 years of the Central Park Runner case in the fight for freedom, justice and equality.”
All three have received key endorsements. Black activist Cornel West has endorsed Salaam. Dickens has the support of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and former New York U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel. Taylor is supported by the Carpenter’s Union.
At a campaign rally for Dickens, Rangel explained that Salaam had called to say he was entering the race. Rangel said Salaam had a “foreign name.” Salaam clearly responded on social media.
“I’m a son of Harlem named Yusef Salaam. I went to jail because my name is Yusef Salaam,” he tweeted. “I’m proud to be named Yusef Salaam. I was born here, raised here and from here, but even if I wasn’t, we all belong in New York City.”
Rangel and Salaam later spoke and resolved the matter, according to a Dickens campaign spokesman.
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Unlikely is an apology from donald trump, which in 1989 placed newspaper ads before the group went on trial with the blistering headline: “The death penalty is back.” The ads did not specifically mention any of the five, but Salaam said the context made that clear.
When asked by a reporter in 2019 if he would ever apologize, Trump said there were “people on both sides” of the issue.
“They admitted their guilt,” Trump had said of the Central Park Five, referring to confessions the five later said were coerced. “Some of the prosecutors,” Trump added, “think the city should never have settled this case. So we’re going to leave it at that.”
When Trump appeared in a Manhattan court in April on charges of falsifying business records, Salaam taunted him with his own social media ad that visually mimicked Trump’s from long ago.
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“Over 30 years ago, Donald Trump took out full-page ads calling for my execution,” Salaam tweeted above the ad, captioned: “Bring back justice and fairness.”
