(New York) Tall and slender, Yusef Salaam towers taller than anyone who crowds around him at a restaurant in Harlem, where this member of the “Central Park Five” is holding an election event, on a night out. ‘april.
From the sidelines, Keith Wright, chairman of the Manhattan Democratic Party, watches the scene, while touting the man who was wrongfully convicted along with four other Harlem teenagers for the 1989 assault and rape of a white jogger. Resounding at the time, the case has never been forgotten, due in particular to Ken Burns’ documentary The Central Park Five (2012) and Ava DuVernay’s miniseries When They See Us (2019), which cast a harsh light on the racism of the American justice system.
Now 49, Yusef Salaam is running for the Harlem seat on the New York City Council, which will be the subject of a Democratic primary on June 27.
“He’s genuine. He is the Nelson Mandela of Harlem.
– That’s saying a lot, interjects his interlocutor.
– I said it. He was a political prisoner, at the tender age of 15. »
Later, in a quiet corner of the restaurant, Yusef Salaam will not immediately dismiss the comparison. “It is with great humility that I receive this praise,” he said in a soft voice. Because I remember what it was like to be at my lowest. »
He is not the only one. At the height of the media lynching sparked by the assault and rape of the 28-year-old jogger, the future president of the United States bought an ad in four local newspapers, including the New York Times, to express his hatred of “robbers “, “murderers” and “criminals” and calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York State.
Raised by a politicized mother, Yusef Salaam remembers that this ad made him think of Emmett Till, this black teenager lynched to death in Mississippi in the 1950s after being accused of whistling a white woman.
“This ad was actually an appeal to society’s darker instincts. They were ready to do to us what they did to young Emmett,” says Salaam, who spent nearly seven years in prison and describes his experience in a book called Better, Not Bitter.
Ironically, Yusef Salaam now owes Donald Trump for boosting his campaign. On the day the former president was indicted by a New York grand jury in connection with the Stormy Daniels case, the political neophyte summed up his reaction in one word on Twitter: “Karma. »
The word did not go unnoticed, nor did Salaam’s social media post the day Trump was arrested. A fundraising message that was visually inspired by the ad that the ex-president had bought in 1989.
Salaam said in it, addressing Trump, “Now that you’ve been indicted and face criminal charges, I don’t resort to hate, prejudice or racism – like you did. in the past. I hope you will fully exercise your civil liberties and get what the Exonerated Five did not get: the presumption of innocence and a fair trial. »
Since then, the media has been snapping up Yusef Salaam. “Yusef is doing incredibly well,” said Keith Wright, leader of the Manhattan Democratic Party, addressing the crowd gathered at the Harlem restaurant. “All the other candidates are green with envy. Because they see it on TV. They would give their firstborn to be in his place. »
Wright, born 68 years ago in this predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhood that sprawls north of Central Park, was instrumental in recruiting Salaam, motivational speaker, board member of the Innocence Project and father of a blended family of 10 children. He is counting on him to dislodge the outgoing city councilor, Kristin Richardson Jordan, a socialist democrat whose radical ideas are far from unanimous in Harlem.
“I don’t think that community was really represented by the current councilwoman,” Wright said.
The main interested party does not believe that Yusef Salaam would be more representative. “I think we already have enough millionaires in power,” she said after Salaam’s candidacy was announced last November.
The counselor was referring to the $41 million in compensation paid by New York City in 2014 to the “Central Park Five.” The latter had been exonerated in 2002 by the Manhattan prosecutor’s office, which concluded that the assault and rape of the jogger, Trisha Meili, had been committed by a man by the name of Matias Reyes.
Yusef Salaam prefers not to respond to the city councilor’s attack. But he implies that no amount of money can compensate for his years as a prisoner and those that followed as a “sex offender”. He says he survived by drawing inspiration from the words of Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou and his mother, Sharonne Salaam, among others.
“I took those words to jail after being convicted of a crime I didn’t commit,” he said. I took them with me after my release. Throughout my journey, I had to activate my ability to survive, but also deactivate what would make me a monster. »
Salaam handles words with the ease of a born speaker. But his mother swears that it is not his eloquence that will allow him to be a good politician.
“He knows how to listen,” says Sharonne Salaam, a smiling woman who was born in Alabama and whose grandfather had to flee to Connecticut to escape the Ku Klux Klan. “If you tell him something, he’ll listen and act on it.” It’s more important than public speaking. »
And what do voters in Harlem think?
“We just lost Harry Belafonte, but we’ve got you,” Harold Harris tells Yusef Salaam, who hands out campaign leaflets at the mouth of a 125th Street subway station, two days after the famous entertainer died. and Harlem activist. “God chose you,” adds the 59-year-old, who knows the candidate’s story well.
His reaction is nothing special. Other voters will express the same enthusiasm after receiving a flyer outlining Salaam’s campaign priorities, foremost among which is affordable housing.
Some will even go so far as to recall the role of Donald Trump in the drama experienced by young Yusef.
“I think it was terrible,” said Malvina Johnson, 60, referring to the property developer’s ad. “It was racist. I didn’t like that. And I think you reap what you sow. Karma. »
