Biography
Joan Pleune was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 20, 1961, for participating in the Freedom Rides and challenging segregation in interstate transportation — one of the arrests recorded by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and preserved in the Civil Rights Digital Library. The catalog establishes the arrest, the participation, and the individually identified police photograph, but not the court disposition, any transfer to Parchman, or the physical release date; those fields are unresolved pending county-jail, court, or penitentiary records.
The jointly filed petition individually lists this rider and explicitly states that all petitioners entered pleas of not guilty for their Hinds County Court trials de novo. The previously blank plea field records that county-trial plea only; it does not change the later disposition or establish physical custody dates.
Nevada Desert Experience’s March 31, 2016 account individually names Joan Pleune among eight people arrested at about 7:50 a.m. while blocking the main commuter gate at Creech Air Force Base. It explicitly states that all those arrested were taken to the Las Vegas Metropolitan County Jail. The four people conducting a second-gate meditation were not arrested and are a separate group. The report gives no individual charge, physical release date or complete served duration; fifteen minutes describes the traffic delay, not custody. The roster identifies Pleune with New York’s Granny Peace Brigade. Her later firsthand oral history connects that group and her anti-war work to her Freedom Ride history. Joan Pleune oral history, April 29, 2022. The Nuclear Resister, March 31, 2016.
The contemporary Jerry Berrigan Memorial Drone Blockade report individually names Joan Pleune among twelve people arrested at Hancock Field on January 28, 2016. It reports one misdemeanor and two violations for each participant without naming those offenses. It also reports an additional order-of-protection misdemeanor for Rice and Pleune. An individual jail admission, physical release, imposed sentence and completed custody duration are not established by this account. Contemporary report, The Nuclear Resister.
The contemporary report individually names this participant among those arrested at Hancock Air Base on April 28, 2013 after the anti-drone funeral procession. Its follow-up specifically includes this person in the twenty-one-person arraignment list. The report names Benack, Gideon and Jokl collectively as the judges and gives a range of bail amounts; it does not assign one judge or bail amount to each listed individual. Contemporary source.
The sheriff’s roster reproduced with the April 22, 2011 Hancock Field protest report individually named Joan Pleune among the people arrested outside the base in the anti-drone demonstration. The article reports trespassing and obstruction-of-justice charges. It describes handcuffs, a wait, and boarding a bus intended for Justice Center processing; it does not establish an individual jail-admission or release time.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister, report 893.
The January 2017 report includes this activist in the combined sixteen-person arrest roster for January 11 protests at the Hart Senate Office Building and cabinet-confirmation hearings. The combined roster does not identify every individual’s precise location, charge, detention interval or case outcome. Contemporary report, The Nuclear Resister.
In her first-person account, Joan Pleune describes imprisonment after the July 23, 2014 Hancock anti-drone action, including transfer from general population to isolation and eighteen hours spent alone by the next day. The isolation segment is not a complete custody total; her account does not establish her final physical release day.
The April 2015 U.S. Mission to the United Nations report names Joan Pleune 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.
The July 23, 2014 Hancock report individually names Joan Pleune and reports Trespass, with $2,500 bail. For the five people held on bail, the article gives no later physical discharge date. Brian Hynes participated but was not arrested in this action; no custody is allocated to him from the seven-person roster.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister report 549.
