Rail union leader Eugene Debs was imprisoned for 6 months for his role in the Pullman strike. The repression backfired on the state somewhat as Debs emerged a militant socialist.

In 1954, Carl and Anne Braden — white anti-racist organizers in Louisville, Kentucky — bought a home in their own names and transferred it to their friends Andrew and Charlotte Wade, a Black family. Real estate brokers had refused to sell to the Wades, a U.S. veteran's family, in any of the city's white neighborhoods.

The reaction was immediate. Shots were fired into the home. Six weeks later, the house was destroyed by dynamite. Instead of pursuing the bombers, Kentucky prosecutors went after Carl Braden — charging him with sedition for "inciting violence and civil unrest" by helping a Black family buy a home.

Carl Braden was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He served roughly eight months before the conviction was overturned. He continued his civil-rights organizing for decades afterward. Anne Braden remained close to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and is one of the few white organizers named in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" (1963).