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College degree in prison and inspiration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. motivate Yusef Salaam

Yusef Salaam photo
Wikimedia Commons
/
Thomas Good

Yusef Salaam was keynote speaker at a number of West Michigan Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day events. At Grand Valley State University, the member of the Central Park Five spoke about earning a college degree while imprisoned and the influence of Dr. King.

In 1989, Yusef Salaam was a 14-year old arrested and convicted of rape along with four other teens. He served nearly seven years at New York’s Rikers Island for a crime he did not commit. Now he’s an advocate for criminal justice reform. At Grand Valley State University, he spoke of Dr. Martin Luther King’s influence on his life.

“Through his march, through his works through his speeches, I can't help but think about one that particularly impacted me. When he talked about when you find out what it is that you are supposed to do, do it as if God himself called you at this very moment to do that. And do it in such a way that all of the people in the world and in the heavens would say no one has done it better. He said if it's your calling to be a street sweeper, sweep the streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Years later, a friend of mine, Les Brown said to me that there's a person Nietzsche who said, ‘If you can find the why, you can live any how.’ I have to say that I went to jail and I got a college degree, and I don’t say that to impress anyone but rather to impress upon us that if I was in there, the place that we call the Belly of the Beast, and I was able to make something of myself we could do anything. I mean, the great philosopher Cardi B said it best. She said, ‘Fall down nine times get up 10.’ We got comeback power. Now is the time for us to realize our greatness.”

Salaam explains all of us were born on purpose and with a purpose.

Patrick Center, WGVU News.

Patrick joined WGVU Public Media in December, 2008 after eight years of investigative reporting at Grand Rapids' WOOD-TV8 and three years at WYTV News Channel 33 in Youngstown, Ohio. As News and Public Affairs Director, Patrick manages our daily radio news operation and public interest television programming. An award-winning reporter, Patrick has won multiple Michigan Associated Press Best Reporter/Anchor awards and is a three-time Academy of Television Arts & Sciences EMMY Award winner with 14 nominations.