From the edition of The Afro-American:
Income Tax Objector Is Still Free… But Nervous
Faces fine of $1,000 or year in jail
Philadelphia Mrs. Juanita Nelson of 3509 Baring St. was at home but in suspense last week, she said.
Her anxiety stems from the fact she hasn’t “heard a thing” from the tax agents who had arrested her on for failure to pay Federal income taxes.
She was given until to be prepared to pay a $1,000 fine or spend a year in jail for contempt of court.
Mrs. Nelson said, “I’ve been away for the past week with my husband.”
She laughed nervously and said, “I haven’t heard of anyone being here after me, and I didn’t receive any mail from the internal revenue agents.
“So I don’t know what is going to happen to me. My husband and I got home Saturday night.” Her husband, Wallace, is a book company salesman.
Mrs. Nelson and her husband are members of a nationwide pacifist movement which is called “The Peacemakers,” organized in .
This is based on Gandhian principles of non-violence.
She said they believe that peace will never come by means of war and war preparation.
The group advocates that in addition to income tax refusal, they refuse to cooperate with military draft, refuse to work in war industry and will not cooperate with civil defense drills.
They propose non-violent resistance in case of invasion or suppression of freedom and wide-spread economic sharing.
Mrs. Nelson has a master’s degree in speech therapy from Ohio State University. In Philadelphia, she is well known as a neighborhood improvement worker, and is a business secretary.
When Mrs. Nelson was arrested on she was picked up bodily by deputy marshals and police and carried to a waiting patrol wagon.
The officers said they were forced to carry her bodily because she refused to accompany them willingly after they had served her with the body attachment. She was also carried out of the cellroom to a chair for the hearing.
Mrs. Nelson said she isn’t going to pay income taxes.
U.S. Attorney Harold K. Wood reported that Mrs. Nelson had failed to explain to the Internal Revenue office her reason for not paying $950 in taxes for the years of and when she was living in Cincinnati.
Taxes were also due for and . A summons was ignored on and several others thereafter. Mr. Nelson was a conscientious objector during World War Ⅱ.
Nelson tells the story of her arrest (and what happened next) in her essay, “A Matter of Freedom.”
