Juanita Morrow Nelson (August 17, 1923 – March 9, 2015) was an American activist and war tax resister. She co-founded the group Peacemakers in 1948. She was the author of A Matter of Freedom and Other Writings (1988). Biography Early life Nelson was born on 17 August 1923 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Eula and Oscar Morrow. By her own account, at the age of sixteen (1939) she and her mother boarded a train in Cleveland, Ohio and were sent to the "colored" cars to the rear. Incensed by the deplorable conditions of the coach, young Juanita fumed for a while then decided to move to the "white" coaches toward the front. These coaches had comfortable seats, no trash and foul smells, and were well kept. "I sat there a while and when nothing happened, I decided to move forward to the next car. I sat a while in each of the white cars moving to the front of the train to show them that I was as good as any passenger. No one said anything until a black conductor said that he was concerned about what might happen to me, that I might get hurt or something. I went on until I had sat in all of the white cars and then went back to my mother in the colored coach. I didn't do anything, nothing had changed, but I felt a lot better about myself." She enrolled in Howard University and was active in the NAACP Youth Group there. While a student there in 1943, she was arrested for trying to eat at the whites-only lunch counter at United Cigar Store and Luncheon on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. This was among the earliest sit-ins of the American Civil Rights Movement. She left Howard University in 1943 to attend Western Reserve University, majoring in journalism. She graduated in 1946. Adult life She was an organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), helping to found the Cleveland, Ohio, chapter of that organization, and working on the campaign to integrate the Euclid Beach amusement park. She moved to Chicago in 1947, continuing her work with the local CORE chapter there and also working as secretary for the national organization. She would continue to work with CORE until 1954. In 1948 Juanita began her lifelong relationship with Wally Nelson, whom she met when she interviewed him in jail while she was