ContentsScope and Contents of the Collection
Albury, John (a.k.a Born Allah) 1987-1988 Breakthrough: Political Journal of Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, no. 14, 1 1990 Winter Committee for Justice to Stop the McCarran Act Deportations 1987 We Want Peace: People of Nicaragua 1986 Crossroad: A New Afrikan Captured Combatant Newsletter, Vol. 1:1, 2:4 1987-1989 Dysentery: Red Balloon Magazine, no. 23 1992 John Brown and the Issue of Terrorism, GLF Occasional, no. 2 1987 Summer Into the Night, no. 1 1987 Sept. 24 Into the Night, no. 1: paste-up 1987 Sept. Into the Night, no. 2 1987 Oct. 24 Into the Night, no. 3 1987 Dec. 14 Into the Night, no. 3: paste-up 1987 Dec. Into the Night, no. 4 1988 Jan. 29 Into the Night, no. 4: paste-up 1988 Jan. Into the Night, no. 5 1988 Mar. Into the Night, no. 5: paste-up 1988 Mar. Into the Night: Miscellaneous 1987-1988 Into the Night: subscription requests 1987-1988 Jenkins, Kenneth Akbar Muhammad 1987 Sept. 8 Magee, Ruchell Cinque 1987-1988 Mordechai Vanunu Legal Defense Fund 1987 On Gogol Boulevard, vo. 1:1-2 1987 Palestine Solidarity Committee 1988 Plowshares-Disarmament Actions, September 1980-November 1986 1986 Plowshares Newsletter, vol. 4:4, 5:1, 5:2, 5:4 1987-1988 Prison News Service, no. 21, 22 1989 Progressive Periodical Directory 1987 Resistance Conspiracy Case 1989 Struggle: A Magazine of Proletarian Revolutionary Literature, vol. 6:1-2 1989-1990 |
Daniel and Joyce Stokes PapersFinding AidFinding aid prepared by Dex Haven.2010
Administrative InformationAcquired from Robinson Street Books, 2010. Related MaterialA number of collections in SCUA contain materials on political prisoners and political trials in the United States, including: Processed by Dex Haven, July 2010. Preferred CitationCite as: Daniel and Joyce Stokes Papers (MS 661). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst. The collection is open for research. Return to the Table of Contents Historical NoteA poet and writer, Daniel M. J. Stokes was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 27, 1950, the son of Ervin William and Elizabeth (Ray) Stokes. A former editor of the East River Review, Stokes has contributed work to a number of magazines and published several books of poetry, beginning with Wired/LSD: Poems (New York: Culture Review Press, 1974) and including The World and Other Places (Cambridge, Mass: Chthon Press., 1975), Poems from Mexico (Mexico City: s.n., 1987), and Poems on the Run, 1984-1988 (Mexico City: In Exile Press, 1995). From 1987 through early 1988, he and his wife, Joyce, published Into the Night, "a newsletter for freedom for political prisoners held in the United States." Based in Brooklyn, N.Y., this simply-produced publication offered updates and commentary on Americans imprisoned for politically-motivated acts. Reflecting both the legacy of 1960s radicalism and the resurgent activism associated with U.S. imperialism in Central America, Into the Night offered news on the Ohio 7 sedition trial, the MOVE organization, and the fate of Plowshares war resisters. Sent free of charge, the newsletter reached an audience of prisoners convicted of draft resistance, antinuclear protest, and anti-racist and anti-imperialist revolutionary activity, and it was read by others who had become radicalized during their imprisonment. From the outset, Into the Night generated significant resistance from prison authorities, and for unclear reasons, it appears to have ceased publication after its fifth number in March 1988. Return to the Table of Contents Scope and Contents of the CollectionCentered around the newsletter Into the Night, the Stokes Papers contains correspondence from a range of self-identified political prisoners, accompanied by an interesting, but ultimately miscellaneous suite of publications from the radical press. As small and tightly focused as it is, the collection provides a valuable window into the radical edge of the late 1980s political spectrum, and particularly the conjunction of antiracist and anti-imperialist groups within the prison system. Although some of the correspondence is at best mundane -- mostly requests for subscriptions -- several prisoners provide compelling analyses of their political views and the conditions of imprisonment. Most correspondents are represented by only one or two letters, however the Ohio 7 "seditionists" (Ray Luc Levasseur and Carol Manning), the MOVE organization (Ramona Africa and William Phillips Africa), and members of the Black Liberation Army are somewhat better represented. Among other noteworthy items in the collection are letters from Chicano revolutionaries Alberto Aranda and Alvaro Hernandez, including protests filed with the Texas Department of Corrections regarding the decision to deny Aranda access to Into the Night, and two lengthy letters from Aranda discussing political prisoners. Marilyn Buck's letters provide a sharp analysis of the need for political ideology along with a copy of court proceedings filed by her and Mutulu Shakur (see also the folder relating to the Resistance Conspiracy Case). Several African American revolutionaries discuss their political motives and life in prison, including Ramona Africa (filed under MOVE), John Albury (Born Allah), Anthony Bottom (Jalil Muntaqim), Eric Clemmons-Bey, Kenneth Akbar Muhammad Jenkins, Ruchell Cinque Magee, and Richard Williams. Finally, the collection includes a small number of radical antiwar and antinuclear resisters, most notably Philip Berrigan, Carl Kabat, George Ostensen, and Gillam Kerley. While editing Into the Night, the Stokes kept copies of other radical publications, many intended for political prisoners or fellow revolutionaries, the more uncommon of which have been retained within the collection, which also includes an apparently complete run of Into the Night, including paste-ups of four of the five extant issues. Return to the Table of Contents Search TermsReturn to the Table of Contents Albury, John (a.k.a Born Allah) 1987-1988 3 itemsOn Black consciousness, becoming a revolutionary Anarchist Black Cross 1988Arafat, David 1988Aranda, Alberto 1987-1988On political prisoners, politicization behind bars, Alvaro Hernandez. Barnes, Bill 1996Berrigan, Philip 1987Information flyers on Plowshares. Bibliography and notes 1988Bottom, Anthony L. 1987On the definition of political prisoner. Breakthrough: Political Journal of Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, no. 14, 1 1990 WinterIncludes an article on victory in the Ohio 7 sedition trial. Brock, Melvin 1988Buck, Marilyn 1988On ideology and sustaining a revolutionary consciousness; brief filed with Mutulu Shakur on status of political prisoners. Clemons, Darryl 1987Clemons-Bey, Eric D. 1988Committee for Justice to Stop the McCarran Act Deportations 1987Includes issue no. 1 of Call for Justice, the Committee's newsletter. We Want Peace: People of Nicaragua 1986 2 itemsCrossroad: A New Afrikan Captured Combatant Newsletter, Vol. 1:1, 2:4 1987-1989Dandar, George 1987Dysentery: Red Balloon Magazine, no. 23 1992Ebner, Jerry 1987John Brown and the Issue of Terrorism, GLF Occasional, no. 2 1987 SummerGaye, David 1987Gelabert, Ana Lucia 1987-1988On her near disappearance as a prisoner; willingness to be exchanged to Cuba. Gilbert, David 1987-1988 3 itemsOn his political history and involvement in the "Brinks case." Guerre, Brian 1987Harden, Donald Sanga 1987 2 itemsOn attempting to be classified as a POW Hernandez, Alvaro L. 1987 10 itemsOn Prisoners United for Revolutionary Education; copy of Arm the Spirit, vol. 1:1 (newsletter of PURE); "The Prisoners Defense Committee report on brutality and torture in Texas Department of Corrections;" background to becoming a political prisoner while imprisoned Into the Night, no. 1 1987 Sept. 24 5 copiesArticles: "United States at war with innocent Palestinians," Palestine, captive Iranian sailors, Philip Berrigan and Plowshares, Soviet Union and human rights, Alvaro Hernandez. Into the Night, no. 1: paste-up 1987 Sept.Into the Night, no. 2 1987 Oct. 24 6 copiesArticles: Escape of Assata Shakur; MOVE, Brian Wilson, Ramona Africa on "Long live John Africa! Long live John Africa's revolution!" Into the Night, no. 3 1987 Dec. 14 4 copiesArticles: updates on MOVE and other political prisoners, "The Government calls it conspiracy -- we call it resistance" (on the Ohio 7), Ray Luc Levasseur on "VVAW article," "Kazi Toure: Community threat?" Into the Night, no. 3: paste-up 1987 Dec.Into the Night, no. 4 1988 Jan. 29 11 copiesArticles: "The crime is treason the punishment" (on Felipe Noguera's testimony regarding the Ohio 7 Sedition trial), Gillam Kerley on "Political oppression and the struggle against the draft." Into the Night, no. 4: paste-up 1988 Jan.Into the Night, no. 5 1988 Mar. 6 copiesArticles: "For freedom, nothing less," on the spirit of Malcolm X and John Brown and Mutulu Shakur and Marilyn Buck, "State of California trying to silence Ruchell Cinque Magee," on censorship of Into the Night, Ray Luc Levasseur's "Memere" (poem), Ray Luc Levasseur on "Free the Ohio 7." Into the Night, no. 5: paste-up 1988 Mar.Into the Night: Miscellaneous 1987-1988Into the Night: subscription requests 1987-1988Jenkins, Kenneth Akbar Muhammad 1987 Sept. 8On unjust conviction, racial disparities in prison system, revolution. Jonah House 1987Jones, Ted 1988 Oct. 9Kabat, Carl 1988-1989Circular letters on political prisoners. Kerley, Gillam 1987Committee Against Registration and the Draft Kirklin, Andrew 1988Krueger, Jack 1988Levasseur, Ray Luc 1987-1988On Ohio 7 sedition trial; Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Libertad: Official Organ of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War, vol. 9:3 1988 Mar.Magee, Ruchell Cinque 1987-1988Copies of three legal briefs, letters, "Black August," Kazi Toure. Manning, Carol Saucier 1989Miscellaneous 1987-1988Mordechai Vanunu Legal Defense Fund 1987MOVE 1987-1989News releases from Ramona Africa and Wiliam Philips Africa. Nuclear Resister 1987 Sept.Ogun, Iyapo Olugbala 1990Ohio 7 1987-1988Transcript of testimony of Felipe Noguera, Sedition Committee updates, posters and publicity Oluyomi, Geoffrey 1987On Gogol Boulevard, vo. 1:1-2 1987Ostensen, George 1987Palestine Focus, no. 22 1987Palestine Solidarity Committee 1988Peltier, Leonard 1989-1991Perotti, John 1988Appeal for help from "IWW union organizer and jailhouse lawyer." Plowshares-Disarmament Actions, September 1980-November 1986 1986Plowshares Newsletter, vol. 4:4, 5:1, 5:2, 5:4 1987-1988Vol. 5:2 enclosed in letter filed with Gillam Kerley. Prison News Service, no. 21, 22 1989Progressive Periodical Directory 1987Resistance Conspiracy Case 1989Rosenthal, Harold 1987Struggle: A Magazine of Proletarian Revolutionary Literature, vol. 6:1-2 1989-1990Taylor, Brent 1987-1988Member of the Squamish Five; includes two poems. Thomas, Martha 1993Thompson, Harold H. 1988Turning the Tide: LA Anti-Racism Newsletter 1989Williams, Richard 1988Includes update on Ohio 7 Sedition trial and information on Kazi Toure. Woodson, Helen 1987World Socialist, no. 1 1984Year One 1987Zeller, Barbara 1988 |
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