Joan Baez Arrested: Why Did Joan Baez Go to Jail?

In October 1967, Joan Baez, her mother and nearly 70 other women were arrested at the Oakland California, Armed Forces Induction Center for blocking its doorways to prevent entrance by young inductees, and in support of young men who refused military induction.

They were incarcerated in the Santa Rita Jail, and it was there that Baez met David Harris, who was kept on the men’s side but who still managed to visit with Baez regularly.

In 1956, Baez first heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak about nonviolence, civil rights and social change in a speech that brought tears to her eyes. Several years later, the two became friends, with Baez participating in many of the Civil Rights Movement demonstrations that King helped organize.

Baez has been a strong defender of the Catalan independence movement. On July 21, 2019, she described jailed Catalan independence leaders as political prisoners.