Yusef Salaam

My family and the community that I came out of went to historically black colleges. The City College of New York wasn't a historically black college, but it had a small community of African Americans and other people of color. That was one reason I went there. I felt that I was still with the community where I was from, which is Harlem. That attracted me to go to CCNY. During my time there, I remember writing for The Paper. I was an English major, and I wanted to be a writer. Writing for The Paper was a really good experience. As for my career, I became a writer for the New York Amsterdam News, the African American newspaper here in New York. Writing was my passion. I was able to write for the Amsterdam News for over 20 years, and I got that from writing from CCNY. I have also been an educator since the 80s, and I retired five years ago.