A Continuous Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Martin Sostre

Historian Felber (Those Who Know Don’t Say) offers a vibrant biography of Martin Sostre, whose legal battles established the constitutional rights of prisoners. Born to Afro–Puerto Rican parents in 1920s Harlem, Sostre spent a significant portion of his life in prison. During his first prison stint in the ’60s, he became affiliated with the Nation of Islam—which prison administrators viewed as a “criminal Muslim organization”—and participated in lawsuits that established religious freedom for prisoners. Upon release, he founded a chain of radical bookstores in Buffalo that brought together disparate activist groups, including the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party and Students for a Democratic Society. When next incarcerated (as part of what was later revealed to be a COINTELPRO frame-up), he worked with these and other groups to form the Martin Sostre Defense Committee, which evolved into a network of autonomous groups around the country that agitated for freedom for political prisoners. Sostre also organized his fellow inmates in hunger strikes while facing down brutal retaliatory measures—he spent nearly five years in solitary confinement. Felber paints Sostre as a bold figure who embraced anarchism after growing frustrated with white radicals, rigid Marxist-Leninists, and the slow pace of mainstream organizations like the NAACP. This brings the revolutionary spirit of the ’60s and ’70s alive in fascinating detail. (May)