Justice for Geraldine and Martin Campaign to Present Exoneration Petition in Buffalo
On Thursday, March 20, at 2:30 PM, the Justice for Geraldine and Martin Campaign will gather at Buffalo’s Niagara Square for a march to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office at 25 Delaware Ave. A circulating exoneration petition endorsing the exoneration of Geraldine Pointer and Martin Sostre will be presented to the District Attorney’s Office.
The Justice for Geraldine and Martin Campaign is a volunteer-led effort initiated in July 2024 to seek justice for Sostre and his co-defendant, Geraldine Pointer (then Robinson), who were wrongfully arrested and framed on July 15, 1967. Participants are calling on Erie County District Attorney Michael Keane (D) to formally exonerate them. This event also honors the late Martin Sostre’s 102nd birthday and centers Geraldine Pointer and her family as featured speakers.
Since its opening in 1965, Sostre’s Afro Asian Book Shop at 1412 Jefferson Avenue served as a space of empowerment and liberation for Black Buffalonians. Pointer also managed another revolutionary bookstore at 289 High Street. As these bookstores became central to Buffalo’s radical Black political consciousness, they drew the attention of local law enforcement.
During Buffalo’s 1967 rebellion (June 27 – July 1), Sostre’s bookshops remained open, offering residents safety from police violence—further attracting law enforcement scrutiny.
On July 15, 1967, Sostre was arrested and charged with the illegal sale and possession of narcotics, Inciting a riot, Arson, Resisting arrest and Assault. Pointer, who was working at the Afro Asian Book Shop, was charged with selling narcotics and interfering with an arrest. Authorities falsely accused Sostre of running a $15,000-per-week drug operation and using his basement to manufacture Molotov cocktails.
During his trial, arson and riot charges were dropped, and the drug charges were reduced to a single $15 bag of heroin, allegedly supplied by a police informant who later recanted his testimony. Sostre was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to 31–41 years in prison. Pointer received a 7–15-year sentence, losing custody of her five children, whom she was reunited with after two and a half years of imprisonment.
Following nine years of incarceration, Sostre was granted executive clemency on December 24, 1975, and released on February 9, 1976.
Ms. Pointer expressed her gratitude and disbelief:
“After all of these years, all of this is so unbelievable because I had figured people had forgotten about my role. It makes my children and grandchildren feel so good, and they are just as excited as I am.”
She has previously stated that exoneration would finally:
“Make me feel free.”
Pointer also emphasized the lasting trauma of her wrongful imprisonment: “I went through a lot of trauma with my children being put in foster homes.”
Vinny Sostre, speaking on behalf of the Sostre family, added:
“The state is no more able to deliver justice today than it was then, but it can confirm the truth my dad always knew: he was imprisoned for his organizing and political convictions. Although limited, an exoneration would finally grant us closure— an endpoint to a tragedy of injustice that has impacted our family since its beginning.”
About the Justice for Geraldine and Martin Campaign: The Justice for Geraldine and Martin Campaign is a volunteer-led, grassroots group calling on Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael Keane (D) to exonerate Geraldine (Robinson) Pointer and Martin Sostre for their wrongful arrests on July 15, 1967, at the former Afro Asian Book Shop (1412 Jefferson Avenue). Follow us on social media: Instagram & Facebook.