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More than 100 people crowded the Michigan Union’s Kuenzel Room Thursday afternoon to hear from civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, George Floyd’s brother, Terrence Floyd, and two members of the Exonerated Five, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam, on the importance of voting.
The Exonerated Five, formerly known as the Central Park Five, consist of Salaam, Wise, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson and Antron Brown (formerly Antron McCray). The five men were wrongfully convicted of rape following the 1989 attack of a woman in Central Park. The men were teens when they were arrested and gave confessions that they later retracted, stating that they confessed due to police coercion. The men spent between 6 to 13-plus years in prison before being exonerated in 2002 following the confession of the true culprit, whose DNA matched that found at the crime scene.
The group stopped in Ann Arbor on their tour around Michigan to encourage students to vote. The event was organized by the Black Student Union, and was the third stop on the “Wheels of Justice” bus tour, which also made stops in Detroit, Pontiac and Flint.
BSU Vice Speaker Alyssa Peek organized the event and said in an interview with The Michigan Daily that the event was an important opportunity to mobilize Black voters on campus.
“We’re trying to get more Black students out to vote, whether that’s registering them or just encouraging them to go to the (University of Michigan Museum of Art) or go to the (Duderstadt Center),” Peek said. “Having such high profile people come to the University and then speak and really emphasize and bring home that point and build that type of credibility; it’s just really important for Black students or just anyone else to hear.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II kicked off the event. Gilchrist, a U-M alum, recounted that during his time at the University, students organized a racist bake sale initiative to oppose affirmative action, and implored the crowd to take action to combat racism on campus and nationwide.
“I tell this story because there’s always something that we can do to stop something bad from happening,” Gilchrist said. “You can use your person, you can use your ideas, you can use your votes, you can use your energy. And I want to challenge all of you. When you see something, I want you to confront it, because nothing has ever gotten better as a result of somebody not doing something about it. The electoral process will not get better if we don’t participate in it.”
Sharpton similarly emphasized students’ critical role in this election in his remarks.
“This election will determine where your life is going to go,” Sharpton said. “In the last year, we have seen many of the things that were fought for … in terms of civil rights and voting rights, and women’s rights overturned. So the life I grew up with, you will not grow up with.”
LSA sophomore Clarke Norman said in an interview with The Daily that the event inspired her to share the Exonerated Five’s story and encourage her peers to vote.
“I may share their story more because I know a lot of people probably don’t know the story,” Norman said. “So I would go out, maybe share their story, and encourage people to vote.”
With the election 11 days away, Sharpton reminded the audience that in 1989, former President Donald Trump spent $85,000 on full-page ads in four prominent New York-based newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty following the coerced confessions of the Exonerated Five.
“He took $85,000 and bought an ad saying those young Black boys and brown boys should be executed,” Sharpton said. “‘Bring back the death penalty.’ That’s the only racial statement he made, until he started running for president.”
The Five filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump Monday for statements he made during the Sept. 10 presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Salaam, who is now a member of the New York City Council, spoke on how the group knows what is at stake in the election.
“What happened to us is nothing short of a miracle,” Salaam said. “Your children’s children’s children’s children yet to be born are counting on you to do what’s necessary. … I want you to vote, not just because your life depends on it, because those children yet to be born’s lives depend on it. That’s what’s at stake.”
Daily Staff Reporter Ava Chatlosh can be reached at chatlosh@umich.edu.
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