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Juanita Morrow Nelson

Released
Date of birth:17. 08. 1923
Date of death:09. 03. 2015
Age:91† Deceased
Gender:Female
Race:Black
Era:1980s
State:Massachusetts
Support
Anti-War
Juanita Morrow Nelson

Biography

Juanita Morrow Nelson was a journalist who met Wally Nelson in 1948 while interviewing him in jail as a journalist; began their lifelong relationship and joint war tax resistance practice that year. In 1959 she became one of only six people imprisoned for war tax resistance in the U.S. between WWII and the Vietnam War. Arrested as the "Elkton Three" for restaurant desegregation in Maryland, she was a long-running NWTRCC presence and co-builder of the off-grid Deerfield homestead. She continued speaking publicly into her 90s.

Dorothy Day’s July–August 1975 On Pilgrimage column places Juanita and Wally Nelson at the June Peacemakers sessions at Tivoli, discussing war-tax refusal and nonviolent action. Day recalls their earlier practical support for Koinonia in Georgia during racist attacks. The column documents community and peace activity without another exact arrest or release date. Source: https://merton.bellarmine.edu/files/original/e47d99685e4e417d411cf7ee99fd06d6cfad4111.pdf#page=2

Case

War Tax Resistance
Charges: Willful failure to file/pay federal income tax (26 U.S.C. § 7203); contempt
Arrested: Jun 14, 1959
Incarcerated: Jun 14, 1959
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: District of Columbia