'Gate of the Exonerated' Dedicated to Central Park Five 20 Years After Exoneration
Officials in Harlem unveiled the Gate of the Exonerated, a Central Park entrance dedicated to wrongfully convicted people, on Monday, December 19 – 20 years after the Central Park Five were exonerated, according to the NYC Mayor’s Office.
The Central Park Five, or the Exonerated Five, were a group of teenagers – Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam – who “were unjustly convicted for the rape of a female jogger” running in the park in 1989, according to the Central Park Conservancy website.
Video posted by the NYC Mayor’s Office on Monday shows people gathered at the Central Park entrance on 110th Street between Malcolm X Boulevard and Fifth Avenue counting down until the Gate of the Exonerated is revealed.
Mayor Eric Adams said: “I see myself in the story of the Exonerated Five, and I see the story of so many black men and boys in it. The Gate of the Exonerated is proof that our struggles were real, and we fought hard to overcome them. This monument will make sure history never forgets that.”
The Gate of the Exonerated – located near the neighborhood where the Exonerated Five once lived – was “the first gate to be dedicated in Central Park since 1862,” the City of New York tweeted. Credit: NYC Mayor’s Office via Storyful
Video Transcript
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