Biography
Elizabeth “Liz” McAlister (born November 17, 1939) is an American peace activist and former Catholic nun, long involved in anti-war and disarmament movements. She was a member of the Catholic Worker Movement and co-founder of the Jonah House community with her late husband, fellow peace activist Philip Berrigan. McAlister has participated in decades of civil disobedience against U.S. militarism and nuclear weapons dating back to the Vietnam War era.
On April 4, 2018, McAlister was one of the seven members of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, a group of Catholic peace activists who entered the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia to symbolically protest the presence of Trident nuclear weapons. She was convicted in federal court on charges including trespass and destruction of government property for this action. In June 2020, McAlister was sentenced to time served, probation, and restitution for her role in the protest.
The documentary The Berrigans: Devout and Dangerous presents the family’s anti-war and anti-racist organizing through archival footage, interviews and the perspectives of younger family members. Its press kit describes the costs of imprisonment and family separation within that movement. The film’s collective reference to more than 300 arrests is not an individual arrest count or a measure of time served. Source: https://theberrigansmovie.com/assets/stuff/2021/11/BERRIGANS_DEVOUTDANGEROUS_PRESS_KIT.pdf#page=2
The November 12, 2019 NYC Anarchist Black Cross compilation reproduces reporting on the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 jury verdict of October 24, 2019: conspiracy, destruction of property on a naval installation, depredation of government property and trespass. It describes the defendants other than Stephen Kelly as free at home awaiting sentencing, while Kelly remained jailed. The reported twenty- or twenty-five-year maximum was a possible penalty, not an imposed term or actual service. Later dispositions remain separately recorded. Source: https://nycabc.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/updates-12-nov-2019-1.pdf#page=2
The demonstration report prints a prison solidarity message identifying Elizabeth McAlister at Alderson. This is evidence of the institution at the time of the April 1986 report; it supplies no exact transfer day and does not change a later or earlier institution in the existing case. Source: Report on the Marion/Lexington demonstration, April 19, 1986, PDF page 21. https://freedomarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/3.report.demo_.4.19.1986.pdf#page=21
Initial Griffiss custody ended December 12, 1983
The Thanksgiving at Griffiss report individually names Elizabeth McAlister among seven resisters who entered Griffiss Air Force Base on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1983. All seven were initially held on an Air Force bus, then remained in Syracuse City Jail until their December 12 arraignment, when they were released on their own recognizance. This establishes an initial eighteen-elapsed-day interval, not continuous custody through any later July 1984 sentence or final federal discharge. The next court appearance in January was future and not a release date. All existing later proceedings and endpoints must remain separately preserved.
The Nuclear Resister No22, December 16, 1983, original page 3.
Separate later Griffiss custody
The contemporary Inside & Out directories expressly identify Liz McAlister (register 01263-052) as then imprisoned at Alderson under a nominal three-year Griffiss Plowshares term. The existing biography explicitly identifies Elizabeth as Liz. This later sentence-phase custody is distinct from the separately recorded November 24–December 12, 1983 initial jail stay and recognizance release. No actual date of re-entry, final discharge, or total served is established by these listings. The ordered term is not a measured period in custody; all other cases and independently documented dates remain unchanged.
The Nuclear Resister: No.35, October 24, 1985, PDF page 4; No.37, January 20, 1986, PDF page 4.
The Militant reported that Elizabeth McAlister received a six-month jail sentence on January 7, 1977 for throwing blood on the Pentagon steps during an anti-nuclear protest on December 28, 1976. That report establishes the sentence and protest dates, but does not establish when she entered or left custody for this action.
