Yusef Salaam is best known as a member of “The Exonerated Five,” a group of five boys—four black and one Latino— who were tried and falsely convicted of a crime in a frenzied case that rocked the world. On April 19, 1989, when a young woman was brutally raped and left for dead in New York City’s Central Park, the five innocent boys were accused and became known collectively as “The Central Park Five.” Spending between seven and thirteen years behind bars, all of their lives were upended and changed forever, including Yusef who was just 15 years old at the time. 

Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after previously unidentified DNA had finally met its owner – a convicted murderer and serial rapist who confessed to the crime. The convictions of the boys, now men, were overturned and they were exonerated, becoming “The Exonerated Five.” 

Since his release, Yusef has 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. He also released a New York Times bestselling memoir, Better, Not Bitter, which details how he turned his story into a tool for change in the pursuit of racial justice. 

Yusef currently serves as a member of New York City’s 9th City Council District, bringing his experiences with the criminal justice system to help make impactful change within the government. 

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. Yusef was later appointed to the board of the Innocence Project and 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. 

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 Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama.