(CNN) The most popular group at Sunday night's BET Awards has never had a record deal.

The men, who as boys were known as the Central Park Five, took the stage to introduce Grammy Award-winning singer H.E.R.

Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam are now known as the Exonerated Five, and they received a standing ovation.

Their story was the basis of the Netflix limited series "When They See Us," which dramatized their experiences of being wrongly convicted in a 1989 rape case in New York. The show has stoked strong feelings about how they were mistreated, subsequent struggles and eventual exoneration.

Korey Wise, Raymond Santana Jr., Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, and Kevin Richardson speak onstage at the 2019 BET Awards

The 19th annual event celebrates the best in African-American culture.