In 1989, at just 15 years old, Yusef Salaam was wrongfully convicted, along with three other Black and one Latin young men, of raping and beating a white woman in the Central Park jogger case, a brutal crime that captured headlines around the world. After almost seven years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Salaam’s case was overturned and he was set free.

Salaam, who was recently elected to the New York City Council, will share how he has turned his story into a tool for change in pursuit of racial justice at this year’s Ida B. Wells lecture, Tuesday, March 12 at 4 p.m. in Mitchell Hall. Hosted by the Department of Women and Gender Studies, the event, titled Freedom for the Wrongfully Convicted: From the Central Park Five to the New York City Council, is a highlight of a mini-curriculum the department has created focusing on wrongfully convicted people and criminalized victims of gender-based violence.

Registration is required.

The Ida B. Wells lecture is supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Affirming Multivocal Humanities program, and by the College of Arts and Sciences.

For further information, please visit: https://ud.alumniq.com/index.cfm/events:register/home/eventId/8705