Biography
Joseph Leston, also spelled Lesten, was a seaman and one of five delegates chosen by the March 6, 1930 unemployment demonstration in New York to present demands for work and relief to Mayor Jimmy Walker. Police arrested the delegation at City Hall and held its members until their release on bail on March 12. Leston was convicted of unlawful assembly on April 11 and remanded to jail. On April 21, he received a thirty-day sentence. He was released on May 5, 1930. While imprisoned, he joined eleven other prisoners in refusing to work on May Day and was placed in solitary confinement without food for the day. After his release, he continued organizing unemployed workers.
The account states that the March6 New York unemployed delegation was arrested at City Hall, held incommunicado, denied access to International Labor Defense counsel and initially denied bail. After habeas corpus proceedings, fresh charges delayed release until March12. The article dates the trial April11 and says the convicted delegation was returned to the Tombs without bail. Its discussion of possible sentencing and predicted Sing Sing confinement is prospective, not an established transfer or completed term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1930/v05n05-may-1930-LD.pdf#page=7
