DR. YUSEF SALAAM
WRITER | POET | MOTIVATIONAL Speaker | CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM ADVOCATE
MEMBER OF THE EXONERATED FIVE
Dr. Yusef Salaam’s full name translates as, “God will increase the teacher with honorable peace,” and his early life provided challenges toward that peace that most of us could never imagine.
WALKING INTO THE EYE OF THE STORM - Yusef Salaam, aged 15, enters a joint trial with four other boys who were falsely accused of an egregious crime.
“In the spirit of Dr. King, I choose love because hate is too much a burden to bear. But my eyes are wide open.”
In 1989, Yusef was one of five teenage boys from Harlem - four black and one Latino - falsely accused of raping and assaulting a woman jogging in Central Park. Dubbed the “Central Park Five,” the boys, ages 14-16, had their lives upended and changed forever.
Each of the boys were interrogated without a lawyer present and pitted against each other in a context of intimidation, confusion and exhaustion. They endured false accusations, stereotyping, defamation of character, and scapegoating by the media, which infected public opinion already biased against young African-American and Latino men. Right-wing politicians called for the harshest possible punishment, and then real-estate developer Donald Trump took out full-page ads in NYC newspapers demanding a return of the death penalty. The frenzy over the case resulted in convictions and prison sentences for five teenagers who had nothing to do with the assault in the park.
Thirty years later, we still see the same fear tactics and hateful rhetoric directed at people from marginalized communities, including our own.
After serving 7 years and 11 months in prison, Yusef Salaam was released in 1997. For the next five years, he was “free” - but he and the others were vilified as violent rapists in the public eye, and on the receiving end of continuous hate speech and death threats. In 2002, a convicted rapist confessed to the crime, and the sentences of the boys, now in their late 20s, were overturned. A full twelve years later they received a settlement from the city of New York, but they have never received an apology for the trauma they endured - in prison, within their families, and for the repercussions the false convictions had upon their already marginalized communities. Each had to learn how to move forward with their lives, and Yusef Salaam embraced the call to use his new platform as an activist for social justice.
An exonerated African-American man and a transformational speaker, Yusef has traveled all around the United States and the Caribbean to deliver influential lectures and facilitate insightful conversations, touching lives and raising important questions about race and class, the failings of our criminal justice system, legal protections for vulnerable juveniles, and fundamental human rights. He has spoken at colleges, universities, foundations, high schools, law schools, the UN, and gave a deeply moving talk at TEDxSingSing prison.
A family man, father, poet, and activist, Yusef is committed to educating people on the issues of mass incarceration, police brutality and misconduct, false confessions, press ethics and bias, race and law, and the disparities in America’s criminal justice system, especially for young men of color.
Dr. Yusef Salaam’s unwavering activism, strong faith, and determined advocacy are an example to all of us as we strive to forge a more inclusive America.
Yusef has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama, an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Anointed by God Ministries Alliance & Seminary, and a long list of Proclamations - most notably from the New York State Senate and the New York City Council.
“He came back to the people, and that means something. When somebody is willing to sacrifice and use the things that they learned to give back to the people, that’s a real social justice warrior.”