It continues to be an amazing journey for Yusef Salaam, who was wrongfully convicted of attacking a woman in Central Park and is now a Democratic councilman who will address the Democratic National Convention later this week.  

But some say if former President Donald Trump had his way, Salaam might not be there at all.

“It’s a reminder to everyone that Trump bought a full-page ad calling for the reinstitution of the death penalty in the case of the then-’Central Park Five,’ now known as the ‘Exonerated Five,’” Ken Frydman, CEO of Source Communications, said.

In 1989, Trump’s advertisements in major city newspapers said New York’s death penalty should be reinstated for use against five young men of color — including Salaam — on trial for allegedly raping a Central Park jogger.

Trump’s bid was not successful, but all five were convicted.

“It’s a story that too many young Black men, Black and brown men, go through. His story, while unique to him, is not unique to especially people of color throughout the United States,” Manhattan County Democratic Chairman Keith Wright told NY1.

“[Salaam] maintained he was absolutely innocent of any of this and was just terribly hurt by these accusations and didn’t have any real power to do anything about them. And it remained that way for a while,” Ron Kuby, Salaam’s former attorney, said.

Those convictions were overturned in 2022.

Now, Salaam’s own story of exoneration is one that the Harris-Walz campaign wants to broadcast.

“The lynch mob atmosphere that Donald Trump encouraged to toward him, his exoneration and redemption is a story that holds tremendous value for white people as well as Black people,” Kuby added.

Harlem’s Jordan and Keith Wright told NY1 that the story is well known in the neighborhood.

“A city council member from Harlem that was directly threatened by the former president, who is now the candidate, Donald Trump,” Jordan Wright, Salaam’s chief of staff, said. “I think that he’s the one who’s been in the crosshairs of Donald Trump for maybe the longest period of time, many other people on this earth.”

Keith Wright argues that the vice president’s own background is key.

“She was a prosecutor. She kept her community safe. She understands, just going through a persecution rather than a prosecution is not what her administration will be all about,” he said.

“For a person who’s been through the pain and come out the other side, he is a person, he is a very authentic, most humble person of great humility and there’s a lack, a lack of bitterness,” he added of Salaam.

Sources told NY1 that Salaam is expected to be joined on stage by several other members of the “Exonerated Five,” including Korey Wise, Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson, on Thursday.