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David Hartsough

Released
Date of birth:02. 05. 1940
Date of death:22. 03. 2025
Age:84† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1980s
State:California
Time Imprisoned:
6 Days
Support
Anti-War Anti-Imperialism
David Hartsough

Biography

David Hartsough was a Quaker organizer and longtime AFSC director of the Nonviolent Movement Building Program. Helped form both the Pledge of Resistance and the Nuremberg Action Group blockading Concord Naval Weapons Station. Arrested more than 150 times across his career, beginning with a 1960 lunch-counter sit-in. Co-founded Nonviolent Peaceforce (2002) and World Beyond War (2014). Died March 2025 at age 84 — final arrest weeks before his death at Travis Air Force Base.

Separate Nevada Test Site imprisonment in June 1986

In Speaking Truth to Power, Friends Journal, August 1/15, 1986, pages 16-17, David Hartsough describes his own Nevada Test Site arrest, trespass conviction, six-day sentence and six days spent in jail with fellow protesters. Complete original pages were visually inspected to distinguish his article from Johanna Sibbett's adjacent account; her Tonopah detention is not assigned to him. Contemporary AP reporting dates the matching 149-person arrest to June 2, 1986. Jail entry is recorded only as June 1986; June 1 is a storage placeholder, not an actual day. Exact admission and release days remain unverified. The six-day account is preserved in words rather than presented as a verified final day counter. This nuclear-test protest is a separate episode, not a date for the undated Central America/Pledge of Resistance entry.

Cases

Charges: Federal trespass; unlawful entry; congregating (misdemeanor arrests, Pledge of Resistance anti-Contra protests, 1984–1990)
Charges: Blocking the road; failure to comply with a lawful order — Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield, California
Arrested: Nov 20, 2024
Released: Nov 20, 2024
Charges: Trespassing on government property - Nevada Test Site
Arrested: Jun 2, 1986
Incarcerated: June 1986
Sentence: Six days in jail. In his firsthand Speaking Truth to Power account, Friends Journal August1/15,1986 pages16-17, Hartsough reports conviction, a six-day term and six days already spent in jail following the Nevada Test Site action. The149-person arrest is independently dated June2,1986 by contemporary AP reporting. Actual jail entry stored June1986/MONTH; June1 is a placeholder, not the actual admission day. The exact admission and discharge days remain unknown; no final exact-day duration is inferred from sentence length. This is separate from the undated Central America/Pledge of Resistance case. Sources: https://friendsjournal.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/friendsjournal/wp-content/uploads/emember/downloads/1986/HC12-50800.pdf#page=16 ; https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-06-03-me-9174-story.html
Convicted: Yes