and congressional elections, Marcantonio continued to practice law. It was his law practice, maintained while in Congress, that had generated the money by which he substantially self-financed his political campaigns. At first, he practiced in Washington, D.C., but he soon returned to New York City. At the time of his death in 1954, Marcantonio was running for Congress as the candidate of a newly formed third party, the Good Neighbor Party. He died on August 9, 1954, from a heart attack after coming up the subway stairs on Broadway by City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan. As a devout Catholic, he was given conditional absolution and extreme unction, the last sacrament of the Church. Legacy Tony Kushner's play The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures has a main character who is a fictional cousin of Marcantonio, whose collection of speeches, I Vote My Conscience (1956), edited by Annette Rubenstein, influenced the next generation of young radicals. His defense of workers rights, his mastery of parliamentary procedure, his ability to relate to the workers in his district while also engaging in worldwide issues, made him a hero to a certain section of the left. Rubenstein's book was reprinted in a new edition in 2002. Works Pamphlets written by Marcantonio include: Labor's Martyrs': Haymarket 1887 Sacco and Vanzetti 1927 (1941) Should America Go to War? (1941) Marcantonio Answers F.D.R.! (1941) Security with FDR (1944) References Further reading Luconi, Stefano, "When East Harlem's Politics Was an Italian-American Matter: The Lanzetta–Marcantonio Congressional Races, 1934–1940," in Italian Signs, American Politics: Current Affairs, Historical Perspectives, Empirical Analyses, ed. Ottorino Cappelli, 113–66. (New York: John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 2012. 236 pp.) Meyer, Gerald J. Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician, 1902–1954 (1989) Simon, John J. "Rebel in the House," Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine (2006) 57#11 pp. 24–46. External links John J. Simon, "Rebel in the House: The Life and Times of Vito Marcantonio", Monthly Review, 2006, Volume 57, Issue 11 (April) I Vote My Conscience: Speeches Writings Debates of Vito Marcantonio, edited by Annette T. Rubenstein, 1956/reprinted in new edition, 2002 CENTRO: Remembering Vito Marcantonio. Archived. Vito Marcantonio Library 1902 births 1954 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American politicians Activists for African-American civil rights American democratic socialists American Labor Party politicians American Labor Party members of the United States House of Representatives American people of Italian descent American