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Illinois

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 Illinois.

716Documented
5In custody
402Released

Eras of repression in Illinois

Where Illinois’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1920s 169 1930s 134 1960s 70 1910s 69 2020s 63 1970s 60

Documented cases

716 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

J
Julian Dombrouski
Released
Julian Dombrouski was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Illinois imprisoned during World War I...
S
Sam Don
Sam was a worker arrested in the police raid on Young Pioneer and Communist Party offices following a protest...
E
Evelyn Dornfield
Released
Evelyn Dornfield was a Chicago garment-strike picket associated with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers...
I
Ida Dubnow
Released
Ida Dubnow was a Chicago garment-strike picket associated with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Unio...
P
Paul X Duhart
Paul X Duhart was a Black federal prisoner who opposed behavior-control practices. A June 1975 prisoner accoun...
W
William A. Dunham
Released
William A. Dunham was a conscientious objector from Illinois imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed fo...
J
Joseph Eash
Released
Joseph Eash was a Mennonite conscientious objector from Illinois imprisoned during World War I. Court-martiale...
H
Harry Edelman
Harry Edelman was an Amalgamated Clothing Workers strike picket employed by the International Tailoring Compan...
R
Richard Eells
Released
Richard Eells was a Quincy, Illinois physician and abolitionist. In 1842 he was arrested and charged with harb...
H
Harry Egan
Harry Egan was an Amalgamated Clothing Workers strike picket employed by the International Tailoring Company i...
W
William Elaska
William Elaska was one of four garment pickets individually named as arrested in Chicago on March 20, 1924. Th...
A
Alice Evans
Alice Evans wrote a first-person account of Chicago’s South Side that describes her own arrest during the Augu...
R
Romaine Ferguson
Romaine Ferguson was a Black woman worker arrested at the June 14, 1930 American Negro Labor Congress anti-lyn...
N
Nathan Florence
Nathan Florence was an Amalgamated Clothing Workers strike picket employed by the International Tailoring Comp...
J
Josie Florida
Josie Florida was an Amalgamated Clothing Workers strike picket employed by the International Tailoring Compan...
N
Nick Florida
Nick Florida was an Amalgamated Clothing Workers strike picket employed by the International Tailoring Company...
D
Deborah Flowers
Deborah Flowers was arrested on February 12, 1971 for alleged unlawful weapon possession and obstruction of a...
M
Maureen Foody
Released
Maureen Foody is an Illinois court reporter who was detained during a protest outside the Broadview immigratio...
C
Christopher French
Released
Christopher French, an anti-NATO protester from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, was arrested in Chicago on May 20, 2012...
C
Charles Fullenkamp
Released
Charles “Chuck” Fullenkamp was one of the Chicago 15 arrested after the group burned about 40,000 Selective Se...
F
Fuller
Fuller is named in the June22 Chicago report among arrested Vincennes Hotel anti-segregation protesters who at...
E
Earl Gaither
Released
Earl was a prisoner in the Marion federal penitentiary control unit (one of the 'Marion Brothers'), among Nati...
F
Frank Gallagher
Frank Gallagher is individually identified in Page 3's Chicago report as one of two Packing House Workers Indu...
S
Stanley Gancharik
Released
Stanley Gancharik was a Russian worker associated with the Industrial Workers of the World who was held in Chi...

Institutions in Illinois

Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Illinois that appear in the census’s case files.

Cook County JailChicago, Illinois
57 cases
Chicago police lockupChicago, Illinois
9 cases
MCC ChicagoChicago , Illinois
8 cases
Woodstock Jail (McHenry County)
7 cases
Southern Illinois Penitentiary, ChesterChester, Illinois
6 cases
FCI Pekin Satellite CampPekin, Illinois
5 cases
USP MarionMarion, Illinois
5 cases
FCI PekinPekin, Illinois
4 cases