New York City Councilman; Member of "The Exonerated Five"; Author of Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice
Yusef Salaam: Biography at a Glance
- In 1989, Yusef Salaam was among five boys—four black and one Latino—that were tried and wrongfully convicted of raping a young woman in New York City’s Central Park. They became known collectively as “The Central Park Five.”
- Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after spending between seven and thirteen years of their lives behind bars, and they received a multi-million dollar settlement from the city of New York for its grievous injustice against them.
- Since his release, Yusef has gone on to become a New York City Councilman and committed himself to advocating and educating people on the issues of false confessions, police brutality and misconduct, press ethics and bias, race and law, and the disparities in America’s criminal justice system.
- His book, Better, Not Bitter Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice, is an inspirational memoir and call to action that inspires readers to turn our stories into tools for change in the pursuit of racial justice.
- Yusef has been appointed to the board of the Innocence Project, awarded an Honorary Doctorate, and received the President's Life Time Achievement Award from President Barack Obama.
- Multiple documentaries have been released on Yusef and his cohorts, including Ken and Sarah Burns' The Central Park Five, and Netflix's limited series called When They See Us, with Ava DuVernay, Oprah Winfrey and Robert De Niro.
Media
NY Times: He Was One of the Central Park Five. Now He’s Councilman Yusef Salaam.Book: Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial JusticeNY Times: We Are the ‘Exonerated 5.’ What Happened to Us Isn’t Past, It’s Presen...BET: For Yusef Salaam of the Central Park Five, Justice Involves More Than MoneyBBC: Central Park Five: The true story behind When They See Us
Videos
Biography
On April 19, 1989, a young woman in the prime of her life was brutally raped and left for dead in New York City’s Central Park. Five boys—four black and one Latino—were tried and convicted of the crime in a frenzied case that rocked the city. They became known collectively as “The Central Park Five.”
Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after spending between seven and thirteen years of their lives behind bars. The unidentified DNA in the Central Park Jogger Case, unlinked to any of the five, had finally met its owner, a convicted murderer and serial rapist who confessed. The convictions of the boys, now men, were overturned and they were exonerated. One of those boys, Yusef Salaam, was just 15 years old when his life was upended and changed forever.
Since his release, Yusef has gone on to become a New York City Councilman and committed himself to advocating and educating people on the issues of false confessions, police brutality and misconduct, press ethics and bias, race and law, and the disparities in America’s criminal justice system. In 2013, documentarians Ken and Sarah Burns released the documentary “The Central Park Five,” which told of this travesty from the perspective of Yusef and his cohorts.
In 2014, The Central Park Five received a multi-million dollar settlement from the city of New York for its grievous injustice against them. Yusef was awarded an Honorary Doctorate that same year and received the President's Life Time Achievement Award in 2016 from President Barack Obama.
He was appointed to the board of the Innocence Project in 2018, and has released a Netflix Feature limited series called “When They See Us” based on the true story of the “Central Park Five” with Ava DuVernay, Oprah Winfrey and Robert De Niro, in May of 2019.
