WATCH: Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise of Central Park Five speak at 2024 Democratic National Convention

Four members of the “Central Park Five” appeared on stage Thursday on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, an evening focused on the future as Kamala Harris formally accepts her party’s nomination for president.

Activist Korey Wise and New York City councilman Yusef Salaam described how Donald Trump, years before he became president, stoked racial animus against a group of Black and Latino teens who were wrongly convicted and later exonerated of assaulting and raping a female jogger in Central Park in 1989.

“Thirty five years ago, my friends and I were imprisoned for a crime we did not commit. Our youths were stolen from us. Every day as we walked into courtrooms people screamed at us, threatened us, because of Donald Trump,” Wise said, recounting how Trump took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of the boys.

“Forty-five wanted us un-alive," Salaam said of Trump. "He wanted us dead.”

“Today, we are exonerated because the actual perpetrator confessed, and DNA proved it,” Salaam added. “That guy says he still stands by the original guilty verdict. He dismisses the scientific evidence rather than admit he was wrong. He has never changed, and he never will.”

Harris’ speech Thursday is her first official chance to offer her vision for the country to voters. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz formally accepted the vice presidential nomination the day before.

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