MLK Luncheon speaker describes “dealing with scars nobody can see”
MLK Luncheon speaker describes “dealing with scars nobody can see”
February 13, 2020 | MIT News Office | David Chandler
Exonerated Central Park Five member Kevin Richardson details his harrowing experiences and his hopeful vision for the future.
One evening in 1989, a 14-year-old Kevin Richardson headed from his home in Harlem into New York City’s Central Park to play basketball with some friends. Little did he know when he walked into that park that his life’s dreams would be shattered that evening, and that he would soon be spending seven years in prison for a crime that, as has since been proven in court, he had nothing to do with.
He spent years in a struggle to prove his innocence, along with the four other teenagers swept up by police that night who became known as the “Central Park Five.” They were accused of a horrific rape that took place that night, for which another man would, years later, eventually confess.