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Arkansas
Political repression plays out state by state — shaped by local institutions, prosecutors, and movements for defense. These are the documented political prisoners and cases the census holds for Arkansas.
76Documented
0In custody
75Released
Eras of repression in Arkansas
Where Arkansas’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1910s 54
1930s 12
2020s 6
1950s 2
1980s 1
1970s 1
Documented cases
76 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
Alfred Banks Jr.
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Ware" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by a...
Daisy Bates
Released
Daisy Bates was the president of the Arkansas NAACP and the mentor of the Little Rock Nine, arrested in Novemb...
Ocier S. Bratton
Released
Ocier S. Bratton helped arrange legal representation for Black sharecroppers seeking fair payment for their co...
Ed Coleman
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Moore" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by...
J. M. Danley
Released
J. M. Danley, a farmer, a self-described "good Christian, " a member of the Working Class Union and a fifteen-...
Joe Fox
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Ware" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by a...
Albert Giles
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Ware" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by a...
Paul Hall
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Moore" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by...
Ed Hicks
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Moore" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by...
Frank Hicks
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Moore" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by...
Paul Jacob
Released
Libertarian activist who at a Jan. 5, 1981 Little Rock post-office demonstration publicly told reporters he ha...
Dawn Jeffrey
Released
Dawn Jeffrey is a community activist from Central Arkansas. She is the founder of the Little Rock Freedom Fund...
Josephine Johnson
Released
Josephine Johnson was a novelist arrested at Earle, in Crittenden County, Arkansas in June 1936 for gathering...
J. E. Knox
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Moore" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by...
Mujera Benjamin Lunga’ho
Released
Mujera Benjamin Lunga’ho is a Little Rock, Arkansas defendant in the federal prosecution of the 2020 Little Ro...
John Martin
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Ware" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by a...
Frank Moore
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Moore" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by...
Ed Ware
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Ware" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by a...
William Wordlaw
Released
One of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Ware" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced to death by a...
H
Henry Avant
Released
One of the Black sharecroppers imprisoned after the Elaine massacre of September–October 1919 in Phillips Coun...
J
John Austin Babbs
Released
John Austin Babbs was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Arkansas imprisoned during World War I...
E
Ed Baker
Released
One of the Black sharecroppers imprisoned after the Elaine massacre of September–October 1919 in Phillips Coun...
S
Sam Barber
Released
One of the Black sharecroppers imprisoned after the Elaine massacre of September–October 1919 in Phillips Coun...
D
Dave Benson
Released
Dave Benson was an organizer for the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union arrested during the June 1936 cotton-chopp...
Institutions in Arkansas
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Arkansas that appear in the census’s case files.
Arkansas State Penitentiary
47 cases
Cross County JailWynne, Arkansas
1 case
Sebastian County JailFort Smith, Arkansas
1 case
Cummins Unit
1 case