Central Park's New Gate of the Exonerated Prompts Reflection on Parks as Stages for Racism

Most of the well-known monuments in New York’s Central Park celebrate cultural icons, including William Shakespeare, Alice in Wonderland and, more recently, suffragists Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

In contrast, a new memorial being unveiled Monday, the “Gate of the Exonerated,” references a notorious moment of injustice in New York City’s history: the wrongful conviction of “the Central Park Five.” In what became known as the Central Park Jogger case, five innocent Black and Latino teenagers were found guilty of the violent rape, assault and robbery of Trisha Meili, a White woman jogging in the park in 1989.

Despite no evidence linking them to the crime, the teens’ presence in Central Park was perceived as suspicious due to stereotypes that have often marked people of color as trespassers in public parks. The intense media coverage of the case both revealed and catalyzed those stereotypes.

Police coerced the teens — Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam, all between the ages of 14 and 16 — into confessing. Even though the boys recanted their confessions during the trial, few in the press and public doubted their guilt. The media repeatedly trafficked in racist language, dehumanizing them and blaming them for Central Park’s lawlessness and decline. Local newspapers published headlines calling the Central Park Five a “wolf pack” and a “wilding,” “roving gang.” Donald Trump bought a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the state to “bring back the death penalty” to use on the teens.

The Central Park Five were incarcerated until 2002 — when another man confessed to the crime.

The Gate of the Exonerated, which will be at the entrance on 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard, offers an opportunity to examine how a history of racism in the outdoors has affected Black people and other people of color, not only in New York City parks, but across the United States. Since at least the 19th century, White authorities have attempted to remove and exclude Black people from park landscapes.