Biography
Jacqueline Bernard, also reported as Jackie Bernard, was a New York 8+ grand-jury resister. She spent months in federal custody in 1985 after refusing to testify in the investigation of Black political activists. Contemporary reporting and a later federal court opinion document her confinement and release.
Contemporary custody sources and limits
The June 1985 Death to the Klan!, physical PDF page 8 (printed page 9), identifies Jackie Bernard among the grand-jury resisters jailed January 21, 1985 for refusing to testify. This corroborates the incarceration date, not a separately documented police arrest. The photograph on that page is captioned with the names of the New York 8+ defendants; it does not identify Bernard and is not used as her portrait. Original June 1985 report.
Matter of Cocilovo, 618 F. Supp. 1378, 1380 (S.D.N.Y. 1985), expressly lists the release of Jacqueline Bernard and Olive Armstrong with July 31, 1985 and docket M-11-188 (GLG). The existing date follows that court account. The September 27, 1985 Militant, page 12, instead describes their release broadly as early August. This discrepancy is retained here; no different exact discharge day is invented. These reports describe civil contempt confinement, not a conviction on the defendants' criminal charges. No independently identified portrait or separate arrest day has been established. Original court opinion; Contemporary release report, page 12.
