Background on Daniel and Joyce Stokes
A 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.
Scope of collection
Centered 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.
Inventory
Albury, John (a.k.a Born Allah)
1987-1988
3 items
Box 1: 1
On Black consciousness, becoming a revolutionary
Anarchist Black Cross
1988
Box 1: 2
Arafat, David
1988
Box 1: 3
Aranda, Alberto
1987-1988
Box 1: 4
On political prisoners, politicization behind bars, Alvaro Hernandez.
Berrigan, Philip
1987
Box 1: 6
Information flyers on Plowshares.
Bibliography and notes
1988
Box 1: 7
Bottom, Anthony L.
1987
Box 1: 8
On the definition of political prisoner.
Breakthrough: Political Journal of Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, no. 14, 1
1990 Winter
Box 1: 9
Includes an article on victory in the Ohio 7 sedition trial.
Brock, Melvin
1988
Box 1: 10
Buck, Marilyn
1988
Box 1: 11
On ideology and sustaining a revolutionary consciousness; brief filed with Mutulu Shakur on status of political prisoners.
Clemons, Darryl
1987
Box 1: 12
Clemons-Bey, Eric D.
1988
Box 1: 13
Committee for Justice to Stop the McCarran Act Deportations
1987
Box 1: 14
Includes issue no. 1 of Call for Justice, the Committee's newsletter.
Community Church of New York. Social Action Committee: We Want Peace: People of Nicaragua
1986
2 items
Box 1: 15
Crossroad: A New Afrikan Captured Combatant Newsletter, Vol. 1:1, 2:4
1987-1989
Box 1: 16
Dandar, George
1987
Box 1: 17
Dysentery: Red Balloon Magazine, no. 23
1992
Box 1: 18
Ebner, Jerry
1987
Box 1: 19
Fellner, Gene: John Brown and the Issue of Terrorism, GLF Occasional, no. 2
1987 Summer
Box 1: 20
Gelabert, Ana Lucia
1987-1988
Box 1: 22
On her near disappearance as a prisoner; willingness to be exchanged to Cuba.
Gilbert, David
1987-1988
3 items
Box 1: 23
On his political history and involvement in the "Brinks case."
Guerre, Brian
1987
Box 1: 24
Harden, Donald Sanga
1987
2 items
Box 1: 25
On attempting to be classified as a POW
Hernandez, Alvaro L.
1987
10 items
Box 1: 26
On 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 copies
Box 1: 27
Articles: "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.
Box 1: 28
Into the Night, no. 2
1987 Oct. 24
6 copies
Box 1: 29
Articles: 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 copies
Box 1: 30
Articles: 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.
Box 1: 31
Into the Night, no. 4
1988 Jan. 29
11 copies
Box 1: 32
Articles: "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.
Box 1: 33
Into the Night, no. 5
1988 Mar.
6 copies
Box 2: 1
Articles: "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.
Box 2: 2
Into the Night: Miscellaneous
ca.1987-1988
Box 2: 3
Into the Night: subscription requests
1987-1988
Box 2: 4
Jenkins, Kenneth Akbar Muhammad
1987 Sept. 8
Box 2: 5
On unjust conviction, racial disparities in prison system, revolution.
Jones, Ted
1988 Oct. 9
Box 2: 7
Kabat, Carl
1988-1989
Box 2: 8
Circular letters on political prisoners.
Kerley, Gillam
1987
Box 2: 9
Committee Against Registration and the Draft
Kirklin, Andrew
1988
Box 2: 10
Krueger, Jack
1988
Box 2: 11
Levasseur, Ray Luc
1987-1988
Box 2: 12
On 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.
Box 2: 13
Magee, Ruchell Cinque
1987-1988
Box 2: 14
Copies of three legal briefs, letters, "Black August," Kazi Toure.
Manning, Carol Saucier
1989
Box 2: 15
Miscellaneous
ca.1987-1988
Box 2: 16
Mordechai Vanunu Legal Defense Fund
1987
Box 2: 17
News releases from Ramona Africa and Wiliam Philips Africa.
Nuclear Resister
1987 Sept.
Box 2: 19
Ogun, Iyapo Olugbala
1990
Box 2: 20
Transcript of testimony of Felipe Noguera, Sedition Committee updates, posters and publicity
Oluyomi, Geoffrey
1987
Box 2: 22
On Gogol Boulevard, vo. 1:1-2
1987
Box 2: 23
Ostensen, George
1987
Box 2: 24
Palestine Focus, no. 22
1987
Box 3: 1
Palestine Solidarity Committee
1988
Box 3: 2
Peltier, Leonard
1989-1991
Box 3: 3
Perotti, John
1988
Box 3: 4
Appeal for help from "IWW union organizer and jailhouse lawyer."
Plowshares-Disarmament Actions, September 1980-November 1986
1986
Box 3: 5
Plowshares Newsletter, vol. 4:4, 5:1, 5:2, 5:4
1987-1988
Box 3: 6
Vol. 5:2 enclosed in letter filed with Gillam Kerley.
Prison News Service, no. 21, 22
1989
Box 3: 7
Progressive Periodical Directory
1987
Box 3: 8
Resistance Conspiracy Case
1989
Box 3: 9
Rosenthal, Harold
1987
Box 3: 10
Struggle: A Magazine of Proletarian Revolutionary Literature, vol. 6:1-2
1989-1990
Box 3: 11
Taylor, Brent
1987-1988
Box 3: 12
Member of the Squamish Five; includes two poems.
Thomas, Martha
1993
Box 3: 13
Thompson, Harold H.
1988
Box 3: 14
Turning the Tide: LA Anti-Racism Newsletter
1989
Box 3: 15
Williams, Richard
1988
Box 3: 16
Includes update on Ohio 7 Sedition trial and information on Kazi Toure.
Woodson, Helen
1987
Box 3: 17
World Socialist, no. 1
1984
Box 3: 18
Zeller, Barbara
1988
Box 3: 20
Administrative information
Search terms
Subjects
- African American prisoners.
- African American radicals.
- Anti-imperialist movements.
- Communists.
- Into the Night.
- MOVE (Group).
- Ohio 7.
- Plowshares.
- Political prisoners.
- Prisoners.
- Radicals.
- Revolutionaries.
- United Freedom Front.
Contributors
- Stokes, Daniel. [main entry]
- Stokes, Joyce.
- Africa, Ramona.
- Aranda, Alberto.
- Berrigan, Philip.
- Buck Marilyn.
- Gelabert, Ana Lucia.
- Hernandez, Alvaro L.
- Kabat, Carl.
- Levasseur, Ray Luc.
- Magee, Ruchell Cinque.
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