Yusef Salaam, one of the acquitted Central Park Five, has won a Democratic primary for a seat on the New York City Council, nearly securing an eventual victory. It’s an unlikely feat for a political novice who, as a teenager, was wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for raping and beating a white jogger in Central Park.

The Associated Press declined to call the race to represent Central Harlem on election night, but votes released Wednesday showed him the clear winner.

Many doubted us along the way, but this was a campaign based on change, Salaam said after AP declared the race. Voters overwhelmingly agreed with our vision for a better, stronger and more tolerant community.

We are getting a new Harlem Renaissance, his statement said.

Salaam and the four other black and Latino teens from Harlem became known as the Central Park Five after their 1985 arrest in the headline rape, one of the city’s most notorious and racially charged crimes. He served nearly seven years in prison before the group was exonerated through DNA evidence.

$41 Million Settlement in ‘Central Park Five’ Case Receives Final Approval

His Outsiders campaign prevailed against two political veterans, New York Assembly members Inez Dickens, 73, and Al Taylor, 65, in his first bid for public office. Democratic Socialist Kristin Richardson Jordan, the incumbent council member, dropped out of the race in May but remained on the ballot.

Salaam declared victory on election night with a vote tally of just over 50%, though an unknown number of absentee ballots had yet to be counted. But his lead over Dickens, his closest competitor, seemed insurmountable, and both she and Taylor relented. New York City is still mapping out late mail ballots that could potentially push him back above the 50% threshold, in which case he will have won without the benefit of ranked voting.

While all three candidates focused on promoting affordable housing, controlling gentrification and alleviating poverty in Harlem, Salaam capitalized on its celebrity in neighborhoods that consider the Central Park Five, now the Exonerated Five, living symbols of the injustices faced by the black and latino residents who make up about it

three quarters 75%

of the neighborhood population.

He’s from the neighborhood and was in jail

,

then turned around, said voter Carnation France. He’s trying to do something for the people.

Others were looking for a change in leadership.

Grave injustice becomes fiction in YA from one of the acquitted Central Park Five

Zambi Mwendwa said she voted for Salaam because he is a new face. She said her decision had nothing to do with the injustices in his past.

I heard him talk. He seems to be talking about the things I care about, Mwendwa said on election day.

According to Amani Onyioha, a partner at Sole Strategies, who ran phone banks and hired residents on behalf of Salaam, Salaam’s lack of experience in public office could work to his advantage.

In a time like this, when people look for a hero, they look for someone who can identify with them, Onyioha said.

I think people saw him as a survivor,” Onyioha said. He was right and in the end the system worked for him.

Salaam moved to Georgia shortly after his release and became an activist, motivational speaker, author and poet, not returning until December to launch his campaign.

Youth testifies that he did not assault Jogger: Trial: Defendant Yusef Salaam tells court that he was in Central Park but never saw the victim. His statement contradicts the detective’s report.

Salaam was 15 when he was arrested, along with Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise, who served between five and 12 years in prison before prosecutors agreed to re-examine the case. DNA evidence and a confession eventually linked a serial rapist and murderer to the attack, but he was not prosecuted because too much time had passed. Their convictions were vacated in 2002, and the city eventually agreed to a legal settlement to pay the acquitted men a combined $41 million.

A 2012 Ken Burns documentary called The Central Park Five brought public attention to the childhood saga of men. More recently, a 2019 television miniseries, When They See Us, drew attention again just before the Black Lives Matter movement was launched in response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Burns and his fellow directors applauded Harlem voters for electing a man who has dedicated his life to reconciliation.

Donald Trump, who ran ads in four newspapers in 1989 before the group went on trial with the screaming Bring Back the Death Penalty headline, later refused to apologize, saying all five had pleaded guilty with reference to their coerced confessions. Salaam reminded voters of that in April by running his own full-page ad with the headline Bring Back Justice & Fairness in response to one of Trump’s impeachments.