photo of Rafael Martinez, New York and Bronx CORE

photo of Rafael Martinez, New York and Bronx CORE

This is a photo of Rafael Martinez who was a member of both New York CORE and Bronx CORE. In it, he is holding a photo of himself as a young man at about the age he would have been when he was in CORE. He served in the Army’s tank division during the Korean War and is originally from Puerto Rico.

In 1963, Martinez was arrested with New York CORE chairman Gladys Harrington for climbing a construction crane during the chapter’s demonstration against employment discrimination at Foley Square. In 1964, he was arrested with Bronx CORE chairman Herb Callender for sitting in at the police commissioner’s office at NYPD headquarters.

Martinez went on to study at Universidad Ibero-American in Mexico City and graduated from Hobart College where he was arrested again for protesting against the Vietnam War. He followed this up with an unsuccessful run for Congress.

He has since then gained fame as the quintessential NYC ‘citizen journalist’ first as the publisher of his independent The New York City Free Press (which has since moved online to http://yourfreepress.blogspot.com/) and most recently as the political gadfly of the City Hall press corps.

Characterized by the New York Times as ‘the bane of four Mayors’ and by Univision as “El ‘terror latino’ de los alcaldes de NY”, for thirty years he has asked the what some characterize as provocative and others embarrassing questions during the Mayor’s press conferences at City Hall especially on behalf of the Black, Latino and poor. Dismissed by Mayor Guiliani as ‘a jerk’, physically attacked by Mayoral candidate Joe Lhota and the son of State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr., he was finally denied his press credentials by Mayor Bloomberg. Martinez sued and won a precedent setting case for bloggers as reporters.