The Exonerated Five: An In-Depth Look at Their Journey to Justice

“It’s amazing to see ‘Gate of the Exonerated,’” said Kevin Richardson, one of the members of the Exonerated Five, in a conversation at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture shortly after the gate’s unveiling. “It’s not just about us, even though we are highlighted in this. It’s about everybody that's been done unjustly.”

For the first time since 1862, New York City’s Central Park renamed one of its entrances to the park in December 2022. Gate of the Exonerated is located along 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard.

Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana Jr., and Korey Wise were all teenagers when they were wrongfully convicted and served time for the 1989 brutal rape of a white female jogger inside Central Park, which became known as the Central Park Jogger case. The teenagers were called the “Central Park Five.” In 2002, all were cleared after another man admitted to the crime and DNA evidence confirmed his confession. 

The Schomburg Center’s online and in-person materials offer an in-depth look at the Exonerated Five. The archives include a copy of the invitation to the gate’s unveiling and a historic conversation with Richardson, Salaam, and Santana, Jr. a few hours after its unveiling. Plus, there are books about the court case and books written by Yusef Salaam. 

"It's the representation of people who were considered outcasts—people who are eaten up by the system, and then spit out, and then just left for dead," Santana, Jr. said. "This gate becomes bigger than the five because it represents a brotherhood that nobody wanted to be a part of.”

The three spoke with Dr. Brian Jones, director of The New York Public Library’s Center for Educators and Schools, and Mieasia Edwards, educator and activist. The evening also marked the 20th anniversary of the court reversing their convictions.

The Central Park Conservancy, Community Board 10, and Justice 4 the Wrongfully Incarcerated produced the talk in collaboration with the Center.

The Center’s Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division holds books in its collection providing a detailed look at the case. 

The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of City Wilding (2011) by Sarah Burns offers an in-depth account of the case, intertwining stories of the five young men, police officers, district attorneys, victim, and Matias Reyes, who years later confessed to committing the crime and being the sole attacker.

Etan Thomas’s Police Brutality and White Supremacy: The Fight Against American Traditions (2022) includes interviews with athletes, activists, artists, and journalists such as Steph Curry, Fred Hampton, Jr., Chuck D, and Jemele Hill. The text examines police brutality, white supremacy, and the struggles for racial justice. Thomas, a former player with the National Basketball Association (NBA), includes a conversation with Santana, Jr. The book also contains interviews with retired police officers about their efforts to change policing and their experiences with addressing racial injustice with their peers.

The Schomburg Center's Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division holds a copy of the invitation created by the Central Park Conservancy to the dedication.

The invitation includes a list of Community Board 10 members, supporters, and organizations who took part in bringing the idea to fruition. 

One inserted page of the invitation includes a listing of leaders such as Community 10 Board Chair Cicely Harris and New York State Senator Cordell Clare, activists Rev. Al Sharpton and Iman Al-Hajj Talib Adbur-Rashid, plus Central Park Conservancy President and CEO Betsy Smith and poet Abiodun Oyewole who spoke during the ceremony.

Another page insert includes information about the Park’s exhibit, which tells the story of how the Gate of the Exonerated came to be, plus a QR code to scan and register for the Schomburg Center’s discussion with Richardson, Salaam, Santana, Jr.

In addition to his activism, Salaam is a bestselling author. His books are in the collection of the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division.

"They didn't know who they had,” writes Salaam in his 2021 memoir, Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice. He discusses the women in his family who raised him, his nearly seven years of wrongful incarceration, and how he channeled those experiences into a life of activism speaking out against racial injustice, police brutality, and calling for prison reform.

Punching the Air, which Salaam wrote with award-winning author Ibi Zoboi, is geared toward young adult readers. The 2020 novel tells the story of Amal Shahid, a teenager wrongfully convicted of a crime, and how he keeps his humanity and dignity in a system designed to tear him down.

During the 2022 Schomburg Center Literary Festival, Salaam moderated a conversation with Abiodun Oyewole, a founding member of The Last Poets. The discussion was a listening session and conversation around Oyewole’s new CD Gratitude, a solo spoken word project.

Similar Blog Posts:

• Courtroom Battles for Justice: Seeking Equity and Accountability
• Courtroom Battles for Justice: Garvey, Holiday, and Davis
   

Get Schomburg Center news delivered directly to your Inbox. Sign up for the free e-newsletter, Schomburg Connection.

Join the Schomburg Center on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.