His paternal grandfather, Clifton G. Harris Sr., ran a trunk line railroad that carried ore out of the Kennecott Copper mines in Magna, Utah until he retired and moved in across the street from David's home.

Named Fresno High School "Boy of the Year" upon his graduation in 1963,[3] Harris was admitted to Stanford University on scholarship and soon became involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

[5] Through 1967 and 1968, The Resistance staged a series of public draft card returns—an action punishable by up to five years in prison—at which some ten thousand young men confronted the government with their disobedience and courted arrest.

[2] He was indicted almost immediately and charged with felony "disobedience of a lawful order of induction" and tried in federal court in San Francisco in May 1968.

[citation needed] In October 1967, folk musician 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.

[citation needed] David Harris and Joan Baez met when he went to her home in Carmel Valley to solicit a donation for The Resistance.

[citation needed] After finding a pacifist preacher and a church outfitted with peace signs and writing a blend of Episcopalian and Quaker wedding vows, Baez and Harris married in New York City on March 26, 1968.

After the wedding, Baez and Harris moved into a home in Los Altos Hills, California on 10 acres (4.0 hectares) of land called "Struggle Mountain", part of a commune,[10] where they tended gardens and were strict vegetarians.

[11] Baez was visibly pregnant in public in the months that followed, most notably at the Woodstock Festival, where she performed a handful of songs in the early morning.

[14] Baez and Harris remained on friendly terms throughout the years; they reunited on-camera for the 2009 American Masters documentary for PBS.