[BwayDems] Martin Sostre, 1923-2015

[Paul A Shneyer]

We second that sentiment.

As Paula noted....Martin will truly be missed.
We were very lucky to have him amongst us.

Paul and Laura

On 8/14/2015 7:50 AM, Lisa Wager wrote:
> Paula,
>  An eloquent and powerful epitaph for a man who deserved no less.
> - Lisa and Bob
>
>
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Paula Diamond Roman <valleygirl109 at rocketmail.com>
> Date: 08/13/2015 11:17 PM (GMT-05:00)
> To: Listserv <bwdupdates at broadwaydemocrats.org>
> Subject: [BwayDems] Martin Sostre, 1923-2015
>
> Martin Sostre
> (March 20, 1923 - August 12, 2015)
> Today we lost a special person, my neighbor, civil-rights and 
> community activist, Martin Sostre.
> Martin was born in Harlem to parents who had migrated from Puerto 
> Rico.A high school dropout, he spent four years in the Army, before 
> returning to New York.From 1952 to 1964, he served a 12-year sentence 
> on a drug conviction at the infamous Attica State Prison; he spent 
> five of those years in solitary confinement as punishment for 
> practicing law without a license, as well as having contraband books 
> and religious materials.During this original incarceration, he was 
> introduced to and embraced radical political thought, including the 
> teachings of Malcolm X.
> When Martin was released, he opened a bookstore selling radical 
> literature “to help [his] people by increasing the political awareness 
> of the youth” by learning about their history and themselves.He also 
> became an outspoken about the injustices of racial and class 
> oppression and about independence for Puerto Rico.In 1967, he was 
> arrested as part of one of many illegal COunter INTELligence PROgram 
> (COINTELPRO) actions and sentenced to 31 to 41 years for "narcotics, 
> riot, arson, and assault".Martin was convicted almost entirely on the 
> testimony of an acquaintance facing drug charges of his own; despite 
> this witness recanting six years later, Martin was repeatedly denied a 
> new trial.During this illegitimate incarceration, Martin continued as 
> a “jailhouse lawyer,” providing legal counsel to other inmates and 
> winning two landmark legal cases, /Sostre v. //Rockefeller/and /Sostre 
> v. Otis/, establishing inmates' rights to practice religion, receive 
> uncensored mail and obtain certain minimum conditions in solitary 
> confinement.
> As a result of the actions of The Committee to Free Martin Sostre, 
> made up of prominent citizens, including Russian Nobel Peace Laureate 
> Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet physicist and dissident; Jean-Paul Sartre, 
> and a number of figures in the civil rights movement; and Amnesty 
> International, Martin was freed in 1975.Once he was out, he fought 
> against landlords who tried to deny services to their poor and 
> seemingly powerless tenants.He married fellow activist Lizabeth 
> Roberts Sostre and raised two sons, Mark and Vincent.He never stopped 
> hoping and working for change.
> Martin’s second incarceration was the subject of a book, ''The Crime 
> of Martin Sostre,'' (1970) by Vincent Copeland, and a film 
> documentary, ''Frame-Up! The Imprisonment of Martin Sostre'' (1974) by 
> Pacific Street Films 
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Street_Films>.His prison 
> letters were collected in /Letters from Prison: A compilation of 
> Martin Sostre's correspondence/ (1968).
> When I first moved into my current building, next to Martin’s 
> building, it was clear that a number of our neighbors were scared of 
> him.I thought that was silly.Martin was simply authentic.Experience 
> taught him not to be concerned with the extraneous and to remain 
> focused on the essential.Martin reminded me a little of my father and 
> a little of a hero out of a movie or a comic book about a social 
> justice league.Martin was a force of nature and I’ll miss him.
>
>
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