Kevin Richardson never got to graduate from Bronx Preparatory Charter. A wrongful conviction from the Central Park jogger case famously stole his youth as a teen. Yet the school, which conferred an honorary degree to him in 2017, welcomed the Harlemite as the big man on campus for a student forum last Friday, Feb. 7.
Friday’s remarks kicked off his “know your rights” campaign called Courage, Perseverance, and Resilience, or CPR for short. Richardson intends to take the program on a tour across the nation.
“It’s basically to teach kids about their civil rights and to teach them how to navigate through the system and society,” he said before the event. “So I’m gonna give some tips about policing, how it is to deal with police and how to go about life as a young adult.”
He dips into personal experience as one of the the so-called Central Park Five, Black and Brown teenagers wrongfully incarcerated for the rape of white jogger Trisha Meili. A bevy of institutional failures from police misconduct to racially biased media coverage all contributed to the injustice.
DNA evidence ultimately cleared their names and implicated the actual assailant who was already in prison. But they already spent years incarcerated by then.
When the Central Park Five became the Exonerated Five, the men continued championing criminal justice reform. Yusef Salaam currently holds office in New York City council for Harlem’s district, elected in 2023. Several members, including Richardson, spoke alongside National Action Network’s Rev. Al Sharpton at last year’s Democratic National Convention.
Bronx Prep seniors welcomed Richardson’s advice, particularly given the significant Black and Brown student population. One youngster recently encountered police after school. “I wanted to meet Kevin Richardson, just to know during my rights [for the] time of the position I was in that day, and what I could have done better or what I could have [known] to help myself in that situation,” he said. Others echoed the sentiment.
“[What] I’m hoping to learn or take away from this whole experience is how to navigate life as a Black girl in the United States, but also how to interact with law enforcement and defend myself and know the protocols and what to do if I’m ever in a situation where I’m hopefully not arrested, but in the custody of police,” said Minyinta, a senior at Bronx Prep.
“It’s about sending a message to minority kids about the justice system and us knowing our rights and how important it is in a minority area,” added Jacob, another student.
Richardson’s diploma helped him receive another honorary degree from his dream college, Syracuse University, in 2020. CPR felt particularly relevant for him as diversity, equity and inclusion curriculum faces national attacks by a Republican administration headed by president who once took out an ad alluding to the Exonerated Five’s execution during the trial (they recently sued Donald Trump over remarks made during a debate).
“Even though there’s tough times, but we must push through it,” said Richardson. “And of course, it’s easier said than done, yeah, but unfortunately and fortunately that we are fortunate enough to still be here to experience this and get through it. Because I always say, ‘This too shall pass.’ It might be crucial times, but it will pass if we come collectively as a whole, we can do it together, because it takes a village.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.