With help from Jason Beeferman

Yusef Salaam spent 12 Thanksgivings wrongly convicted of rape and assault.

He’ll spend this holiday gathered with family to honor the arc that led to his City Council election victory earlier this month.

“There’s definitely a lot to be thankful for and also a lot to plan for as well as we think about the needs of our community,” the Harlem Democrat told Playbook, stressing “how grateful that folks are, including myself, when we can have things like clean water and a place to rest our head.”

Salaam was imprisoned for nearly seven years for an attack on a Central Park jogger he didn’t commit.

Five more years passed before his conviction was overturned, and he and the four other young Black and Latino men long disparaged as the Central Park Five became the Exonerated Five.

His next chapter begins as he prepares to take his place in the City Council.

The newcomer bested experienced elected officials to represent a seat of Black political power. He was recruited to run by Manhattan Democratic Party chair Keith Wright but he won with his backstory, his messaging as a motivational speaker and his post-incarceration journey to become “better, not bitter.”

Salaam had moved to Georgia but returned to the neighborhood that raised him. As he campaigned in Harlem, he was widely recognized and warmly greeted as “Brother Yusef” and “Dr. Salaam.”

In an interview, he described himself as a progressive Democrat eager to begin shaping policy through the lens of his personal experiences.

People may know his story but do they know him as a person? Playbook asked.

“Absolutely not,” Salaam responded. “One of the challenges of being in a political space is, unfortunately, it almost seems like I’m a miracle, and therefore I can make miracles happen.”

But progress can’t…