Some tickets are still available for Illinois State students who are meal plan holders. Students can contact housing at Housing@IllinoisState.edu.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Dinner will feature Dr. Yusef Salaam, a member of the Exonerated Five, on Friday, January 20, 2023, in the Brown Ballroom of the Bone Student Center at Illinois State University.
Doors open at 5 p.m. Dinner and the program begin at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $15 for students and $25 for non-students. Tickets are available here. Student meal plan holders may use a meal swipe to make a reservation in exchange for one meal on the Housing website.
The event is sponsored by Illinois State University’s Office of the President, University Housing, University Police, Office of the General Counsel, the Office of Equity and Inclusion, and the Association of Residence Halls.
Dr. Yusef Salaam
In 1989, at 15 years old, Salaam was tried and convicted in the “Central Park Jogger” case along with four other Black and Latinx young men.
Now known as the Exonerated Five, these men spent between seven-13 years behind bars for crimes they did not commit, until their sentences were overturned in 2002. The unidentified DNA in the Central Park Jogger case, unlinked to any of the five, met its owner in a convicted murderer and serial rapist who confessed. The convictions of the boys—now men—were overturned.
Since then, they have been the subject of award-winning films, including The Central Park Five documentary from Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon and the Emmy award-winning Netflix limited series When They See Us, written and directed by Ava DuVernay.
Since his release, Salaam has committed himself to advocating and educating people on the issues of false confessions, police brutality and misconduct, press ethics and bias, race and law, and the disparities in America’s criminal justice system. He regularly advocates for criminal justice reform, prison reform, and the abolition of juvenile solitary confinement and capital punishment.
Salaam is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama in 2016. He was appointed to the board of the Innocence Project in 2018.
