This is The One Particular person Who Gave Korey Smart A Job After Jail
Ava DuVernay’s Netflix collection When They See Us has sparked tears and outrage amongst these reliving the horrific injustice of the case, and people who are simply now studying about it. However one anecdote concerning the aftermath of the case presents a ray of hope.
Whereas reflecting on the Central Park 5 case, throughout which 5 Black and Brown males had been wrongfully convicted of raping a jogger in New York’s Central Park, Rev. Al Sharpton shared that his group, the Nationwide Motion Community, gave Korey Smart, one of many 5 wrongly convicted, a job following his ordeal.
“Korey Smart, who labored right here ‘trigger he couldn’t get a job anyplace else when he obtained out,” Sharpton mentioned to an viewers throughout his NAN Saturday Motion Rally occasion. “Don’t miss this: their household suffered.”
He continued: “Don’t ever overlook that they mommas needed to stand up in the course of the evening and catch buses to experience out to a jail and wait on line and empty their pocketbooks and undergo the humiliation and degradation of visiting their sons who had been charged with rape. Nothing extra collection than that.”
Ava DuVernay retweeted the video posted by Sharpton and added extra context as to why the employment alternative was crucial.
“After Korey Smart was exonerated, however earlier than the town settled the lawsuit about its wrongdoing, he couldn’t get a job,” DuVernay wrote. “Falsely convicted at age 16. No abilities from over a decade in NY state prisons. Just one man quietly gave him a job. That was @TheRevAl. Respect. #WhenTheySeeUs.”
That is only a reminder of how troublesome life was for the younger males even after they had been launched from jail and exonerated.