Biography
David McReynolds was a pacifist, democratic socialist, and longtime War Resisters League organizer. Police arrested him on April 17, 1959 for refusing to take shelter during New York City’s compulsory civil-defense drill, and he was held overnight. He was arrested again during the final drill protest on April 28, 1961 and served a 25-day sentence on Hart Island.
Calculated release date for the stay beginning April 28, 1961: May 23, 1961, adding the recorded completed custody duration of 25 days with elapsed-calendar-day counting. This is a calculated date from the recorded admission and duration, not a separately documented physical-discharge date.
Calculated release date for the stay beginning April 17, 1959: April 18, 1959. The recorded overnight detention places release on the next calendar day; it does not assert twenty-four full hours of confinement. This is a calculated date from the recorded admission and duration, not a separately documented physical-discharge date.
Calculated release date
Calculated release date for the stay beginning April 17, 1959: April 18, 1959. The recorded overnight detention places release on the next calendar day; it does not assert twenty-four full hours of confinement. This is a calculated date from the recorded admission and duration, not a separately documented physical-discharge date.
Calculated release date
Calculated release date for the stay beginning April 28, 1961: May 23, 1961, adding the recorded completed custody duration of 25 days with elapsed-calendar-day counting. This is a calculated date from the recorded admission and duration, not a separately documented physical-discharge date.
The April 2015 U.S. Mission to the United Nations report names David McReynolds among twenty-two people arrested, processed at the Seventeenth Precinct and released by early afternoon. Its introductory April 27 date conflicts with Art Laffin’s participant account and John LaForge’s separate first-person account, both dating the action April 28. Accounts also differ in their descriptions of summons charges. These differences are preserved rather than silently replacing existing case dates or charges; the planned June 24 hearing is not an eventual court outcome.
Sources: Contemporary report; Contemporary report.
