In a 2019 interview, Salaam said, “We were convicted because of the color of our skin. People thought the worst of us,” he said. “And this is all because of prominent New Yorkers-especially Donald Trump.” He added, “I look at Donald Trump, and I understand him as a representation of a symptom of America.” Many of Trump’s supporters will continue to vote for him despite two impeachments, one insurrection and now a criminal indictment. At times, his divisive hate-filled rhetoric connects with the motivations behind the death of Emmett Till and the massacres in Tulsa and Rosewood. The motivation to seek the death of a Black person when it comes to a Black man attacking a white female is a symptom of America even when the accusation is known not to be true. Trump’s arrest may be violently opposed by many of his supporters, but to see that Trump may likely walk into the same courtroom where the Exonerated Five were falsely convicted is priceless.
Portland Opera continues the 2021/22 season with The Central Park Five, composed by Anthony Davis with a libretto by Richard Wesley. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2020, The Central Park Five is set in New York City in the late 80s when five Black and Latino teenagers were falsely accused of rape and assault and coerced into confession. Their high-profile case spiraled out of control, turning the accused, and their families, into victims of prejudice and grave injustice.