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Kentucky
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 Kentucky.
111Documented
1In custody
103Released
Eras of repression in Kentucky
Where Kentucky’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1930s 57
1970s 13
1950s 9
1910s 8
1980s 7
2020s 6
Documented cases
111 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
D
Doris Parks
Released
Doris Parks was a Communist activist jailed during the 1931–32 Harlan–Bell County, Kentucky coal strike. In Fe...
C
Charley Parrett
Released
Charley Parrett was a Pentecostal conscientious objector from Kentucky imprisoned during World War I. Court-ma...
E
Ebb Payne
Released
Ebb Payne was a Straight Creek miner jailed at Pineville in the criminal-syndicalism drive, leaving a wife and...
E
E. Phillips
Released
E. Phillips was one of the Harlan County, Kentucky coal miners indicted for murder and held facing the electri...
C
Chester Poore
Released
Chester Poore was a Harlan miner held awaiting trial in the Clark County jail at Winchester after the 5 May 19...
M
Mack Pruett
Released
Mack Pruett was a conscientious objector from Kentucky imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refu...
A
Alex Reed
Released
Alex Reed was a Harlan miner jailed in the roundup after the 5 May 1931 Battle of Evarts, one of the more than...
C
C. W. Reno
Released
C. W. Reno was a Harlan County, Kentucky miner serving a life sentence on a frame-up murder charge arising fro...
J
Jim Reynolds
Released
Jim Reynolds was a Clover Fork miner held awaiting trial after the 5 May 1931 Battle of Evarts, one of the mor...
C
C. H. Rice
Released
C. H. Rice, a lumberjack from Owenton, Kentucky, was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to...
C
Christine Rico
Released
White anti-imperialist activist held in the High Security Unit (HSU) at FCI Lexington in the late 1980s, the e...
S
Sandra Roland
Released
White anti-imperialist activist held in the High Security Unit (HSU) at FCI Lexington in the late 1980s, an ex...
B
Beth Rosdatter
Released
Kentucky anti-nuclear activist who crossed the line at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN on...
F
F. G. Sampson
Released
The Rev. F. G. Sampson, vice-president of the Louisville NAACP, was jailed with other leaders in the March 14,...
S
Silas Saylor
Released
Silas Saylor, an ordained preacher of the Pentecostal Church from Beverly, Kentucky, was convicted because he...
C
C. B. Schoberg
Released
C. B. Schoberg, from Covington, Kentucky, was convicted of making disloyal statements and began serving his se...
S
Silas Serge
Released
Silas Serge was a Harlan-area coal miner indicted for murder in the frame-ups that followed the 5 May 1931 Bat...
J
Janice Sevre-Duszynska
Released
Janice Sevre-Duszynska is a Roman Catholic Womenpriests-ordained priest from Lexington, Kentucky who has been...
M
Marla Seymour
Released
Marla Seymour was a member of the Lexington, Kentucky lesbian-feminist and gay-liberation collective subpoenae...
C
Cecil Shadrick
Released
Cecil Shadrick was a Harlan-area coal miner indicted for murder in the frame-ups that followed the 5 May 1931...
C
Chas. Shadrick
Released
Chas. Shadrick was one of the Harlan County, Kentucky coal miners indicted for murder and held facing the elec...
E
Elbert Shadrick
Released
Elbert Shadrick was one of the Harlan County, Kentucky coal miners indicted for murder and held facing the ele...
B
Ben Simmons
Released
Ben Simmons was a Louisville Seven defendant supported by the local Black Panther defense campaign. The prosec...
J
James Darryl Smith
Released
Smith was prosecuted alongside other striking miners in connection with the same eastern Kentucky coal-truck a...
Institutions in Kentucky
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Kentucky that appear in the census’s case files.
Ashland FCIDedham, Kentucky
16 cases
Harlan County JailHarlan, Kentucky
16 cases
Bell County JailPineville, Kentucky
9 cases
Federal Correctional Institution, AshlandAshland, Kentucky
5 cases
FCI AshlandAshland, Kentucky
3 cases
FCI Lexington High Security UnitLexington, Kentucky
3 cases
FCI LexingtonLexington, Kentucky
3 cases
FPC LexingtonLexington, Kentucky
2 cases