Biography
Lawrence Scott was a Quaker organizer and former American Friends Service Committee peace-education director. He led the Washington Peace Action Center and was jailed for a White House peace vigil. He later helped establish A Quaker Action Group.
Mildred B. Young’s July 1, 1962 report on the White House nuclear-test vigil distinguishes two jail phases for the four Peace Action Center staff members. In the first, charges were dismissed after about twenty-four hours and the prisoners were released. For the later twenty-day sentences, Scott posted bail to keep an appeal from becoming moot; the report does not establish that he completed the imposed term. The report supplies no exact individual admission or discharge days for these phases.
Friends Journal, July 1, 1962, printed page 281, Vigil at the White House.
An Associated Press report printed in the Snyder Daily News on February 6, 1962 names Scott among nine nuclear-testing protesters arrested outside the White House the previous day. After Congo Premier Cyrille Adoula entered for lunch, police invoked the restriction on demonstrations within five hundred feet of buildings occupied by foreign dignitaries. The nine refused to move to the far end of the park and told Municipal Judge Edward A. Beard they felt morally obligated not to pay ten-dollar fines; they chose ten days in jail instead. This documents the February 5 arrest and jail choice, rather than completion of ten days or the duration of any later vigil prosecution. Contemporary AP report, printed page 8, Jail Chosen By Marchers.
