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Bill Perkins, who for 24 years as a legislator from Harlem championed his community by, among other things, challenging Donald J. Trumps aggressive demand for the death penalty when five teenagers, who were later exonerated, were arrested in connection with a rape in Central Park in 1989 died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 74.

His death was announced by his wife, Pamela Green Perkins. She did not give a cause, but Mr. Perkins had undergone treatment for colon cancer and, according to Richard Fife, a family spokesman, had developed dementia.

Raised with his brothers and a cousin by a single mother, Mr. Perkins was a relentless advocate in the New York City Council and the New York State Senate for raising the minimum wage, protecting children from being poisoned by lead paint in their apartments, instituting health screening programs in municipal hospitals, and protecting the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender people.

In 1989, when five Black and Hispanic teenagers were charged with the rape of a white jogger in Central Park, Mr. Perkins was among the first Black civic leaders to publicly raise questions about the evidence and to suggest that there had been a rush to judgment. At the time he was president of the tenants association of Schomburg Plaza, the Manhattan apartment complex where several of the defendants lived.

Few other public officials or civic leaders, white or Black, questioned the police investigation at the time, particularly since the defendants had confessed.

Mr. Perkins also took on Mr. Trump, then a wealthy real estate developer, who took out full-page advertisements in city newspapers after the attack calling for New York State to adopt the death penalty for murder cases. Mr. Trump did not explicitly call for the death penalty for the five defendants, but he made clear that he was referring to that case.

This was taking a moment, a very unfortunate and one might say racially tense moment in our city, and fueling a lynch mob, Mr. Perkins said when Mr. Trump was running for president in 2016.

The defendants, who became known as the Central Park Five, were convicted and imprisoned. But they were exonerated in 2002 after another man confessed to the crime.

In our darkest hours, when it seemed like the whole world was against us, Bill Perkins bravely stood behind and with us, one of the defendants, Yusef Salaam, said in a statement after Mr. Perkinss death. His bravery and commitment to justice were unwavering, and he is a big reason we were eventually exonerated.

William Morris Perkins was born on April 18, 1949, in the Bronx to Helen Perkins. He said he never knew his father.

Inspired by his mothers faith in education, he won scholarships to the Collegiate School in Manhattan and Brown University in Providence, R.I., where he graduated with a bachelors degree in 1972.

He was a community organizer, a social worker and a tenant leader before running for the City Council. He served there from 1997 to 2006 and again from 2017 to 2021, ultimately rising to deputy majority leader. From 2007 to 2017 he was a state senator, representing Harlem, the Upper West Side and Washington Heights.

Among his major accomplishments was sponsorship of the Childhood Lead Paint Poisoning Prevention Act of 2004, which required landlords to ameliorate hazardous paint conditions in their properties.

The Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez wrote of Mr. Perkins, who was a marathoner, It took the stamina of a long-distance runner to prevail against the citys powerful landlord lobby, which has resisted stronger lead paint removal laws for decades.

Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the State Senate majority leader, said in a statement after Mr. Perkinss death that he never waited for the right thing to become popular before taking action.

He had no qualms about challenging Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a Nation of Islam minister known for his anti-white diatribes. And in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, when Senator Hillary Clinton of New York was running, he was among the first Black elected officials to endorse Barack Obama.

In 2021, when he was already ailing, he lost a primary to retain his Council seat.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Perkins is survived by his children, Kiva Perkins-Watts, Medjha White, William Perkins, Margaret Perkins, Maximilian Perkins and Rebecca Marimutu; his brothers, Gerry, Richard and Michael; and four grandchildren.

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Bill Perkins, Defender of His Harlem Constituents, Dies at 74 - The New York Times