“My modern Harriet Tubman mother said, they need you to participate in whatever they are trying to get you to do. Look them in the eye and refuse to participate. I was the only one of the “Central Park Five” that wasn’t interrogated on film because of my mother’s advice, I went into survival mode.” Dr. Yusef Salaam said.

Northampton Community College’s 2025 Annual Humanities Lecture theme this year is “Stories That Shape Us: Turn the Page, Connect, Engage.” The event at the Spartan Center on the Bethlehem Campus was a Q&A style discussion of the accusations and meanings behind the notorious story of the “Central Park Five,” young Black and Latino men convicted of beating and raping Trisha Meili who was jogging in the park in 1989. The five went through brutal police department interrogations including beatings and threats leading to false confessions. All five later pleaded “not guilty.” The boys, who mostly didn’t even know each other at the time, ranged in age from 14 to 16 and later became known as the “Exonerated Five” when serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to the crime after conclusive DNA testing in 2002.

Dr. Salaam’s message included the reality of a sometimes broken and corrupt system of incarceration. He explained how some people get caught up into the perception of guilt to fill the need of society relief and to fill jail cells, putting into context the financial cost associated with an inmate doing time.

“Follow the money” he mentioned twice into the session.

Salaam discussed the human toll and the reckoning he went through as a falsely accused citizen. He said prison officials wanted him to believe he was born in error. When he was released after serving seven years, the officer told him, “See you later” as he left, in an attempt to dampen his spirit.

The case took an even uglier turn when four New York City newspapers ran full page ads reported at $85,000 ordered by Donald Trump, who at the time was a real estate businessman, now the President of the United States, on May 10, 1989. “Send a message loud and clear to those who would murder our citizens and terrorize New York – BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY AND BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” the ad read. Even today, though all five men were exonerated, Trump still hangs on to the false narrative that the boys committed the crime. In 2024. At a September presidential debate with Kamala Harris, Trump brought up the false claims again, reopening the wound. The men are suing Donald Trump in a defamation case filed in October 2024.

On a lighter note, Salaam, a Muslim, explained his reckonings as a result of what happened. A part of the journey included reading and understanding relevant material in the Bible, relying on faith to get him through his ordeal. He realized his first name, Yusef, is Joseph in the English version. He read about Joseph, also accused of rape and cast into a well by his seven brothers, then imprisoned for seven years and eventually set free to become a leader. The profound message helped Salaam understand his role for the future of advocating for the wrongly accused as well as for prison reform.

When asked by a NCC student how he kept from being angry, Salaam replied, “The people who want a better, more equal and just way are not outnumbered. We are out organized. Don’t leave this world without leaving your trace, bring forth your gifts. Direct your anger into peaceful activism.”

In closing he urged those attending to, “be a diamond that reflects light in a world that badly needs light.”

To learn more about Salaam’s “Sharing the Struggle” initiative, go to yusefspeaks.com.