Famous Fasts in History David Harris

About the famous faster David Harris, history and biography of activist who used hunger strikes.

FAMOUS FASTS

DAVID HARRIS

In August, 1969, while serving a two-year sentence in San Francisco County jail for refusing to submit to induction, into the armed forces, David Harris led 40 inmates on a six-day hunger strike in protest against the cancellation of visiting privileges and the shortage of medical personnel. Harris, a civil rights leader then married to singer Joan Baez, recounts in his book I shoulda been home yesterday that the strikers, with few exceptions, resisted the blandishments of rare (for prisoners) delicacies like bacon and eggs offered them by prison personnel until a commitment to restore visiting privileges was received.