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And she then said, “Look, Moe, if you say this, I'm not going to go.” People like [Mario] Cuomo spoke in support of him.

And he was eventually convicted.

He was eventually convicted. I think he's been released just recently. He's back doing the things that he did. I remember that very closely.

I also am very fond of the first meeting I had with Ossie and Ruby [Dee] in 1954, going backstage. I think I've described it elsewhere. And then becoming such warm, close personal friends since 1954, and most anything that we want. He brought me to Alan Alda. Everybody who worked with Ossie, Sidney [Poitier], Harry.

Sidney Poitier.

Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte. Maya Angelou came to our Negro History Week program as a dancer. I have photographs of her. Just everybody. He opened them up to us and brought them with him. Ricardo Montalban, when he was in Jamaica, writing dramatizations of the history of 1199, one was an LP recording of it. Just far beyond the cause of duty. And everybody who knows Ossie, people have the greatest respect for him. And the fact that he transferred it to us.

When he came to the fortieth anniversary exhibition, he and Ruby wrote a letter to me that was published in 1199 News, which started out by saying, “When we saw this exhibition, we cried.” I think you may remember that. They were so touched. And they said, “Anything, this is something that workers have to see, and what you're doing is bringing working people to understand the struggle, and that we are with you all the time.”

Let me see. The other things are, briefly, the Times editorial board, getting to know the editor to a point, Evans Clark, where he would come to a rally and call me the next day and say, “You don't have a bad singing voice.”

“How do you know?”

He said, “I was in the back. I wanted to see what your people look like and how they reacted. I was very, very impressed.” And he was our very, very close supporter, despite the Times ownership which was very close to the management and was trying to keep him low key on it.

This was during the '59 strike.