Roy Lisker

Released
Date of birth:24. 09. 1938
Date of death:28. 02. 2019
Age:80† Deceased
Gender:Male
Era:1960s
State:New York
Time Imprisoned:
4 Months
Support
Anti-War Union Square Five
Roy Lisker

Biography

Roy Lisker was a writer, mathematician, and self-described Renaissance man who was one of five men who burned their draft cards at Union Square on November 6, 1965, at a rally organized by the Committee for Non-Violent Action. Though he said he was not himself draft-eligible, he burned a card as a statement against the war; he was convicted alongside Cornell and Edelman and sentenced to six months.

Photo credit

Gene Keyes, Roy Lisker at the Committee for Non-Violent Action 50th anniversary reunion, Voluntown, Connecticut, June 11-13, 2010. Published and identified by Roy Lisker on his Ferment Magazine website. Cropped.

Case

Charges: Destruction of a Selective Service registration certificate (the November 6, 1965 Union Square, NYC draft-card burning).
Incarcerated: August 1972
Released: December 1972
Sentence: Six-month sentence for the 1965 draft-card protest; served in 1972. His first-person account describes four and a half months after good-time reduction, while his photographic autobiography rounds the term to five months. Incarceration dates are recorded at month precision.
Convicted: Yes

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Tom Cornell Tom Cornell Jim Wilson Marc Edelman David McReynolds David McReynolds