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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.
V
Verne Smith
Released
Verne Smith was a Communist and National Miners' Union organizer jailed in the January 4, 1932 raid on the uni...
L
Larue Spiker
Released
Larue Spiker was a social worker indicted in October 1954 under Kentucky sedition law in the Louisville case o...
F
Frank Stanley
Released
Frank Stanley was a Louisville integration leader (an assistant to the publisher of the Louisville Defender) j...
E
Edward Stevenson
Released
The Reverend Edward Stevenson was a minister in Russellville, Kentucky. On June 30, 1862, federal authorities...
J
John Subleski
Released
John Subleski, age 32, of Louisville KY, a member of the United Pharaohs Guard Boogaloo militia, was charged w...
T
Thomas J. Taylor
Released
Thomas J. Taylor was a Pentecostal conscientious objector from Kentucky imprisoned during World War I. Court-m...
P
Pless Thomas
Released
Pless Thomas was one of the Harlan County, Kentucky coal miners indicted for murder and held facing the electr...
H
Hannah Toliver
Released
Hannah Toliver was a free Black woman arrested in 1864 for violating Kentucky's law against "enticing a slave,...
M
Mahan Vanover
Released
Mahan Vanover was a striking coal miner and member of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) jailed during...
A
Andy Vaughn
Released
Andy Vaughn was an Evarts miner jailed in the Harlan roundup after the 5 May 1931 Battle of Evarts, one of the...
A
Andrew Wade
Released
Andrew Wade was a Black Navy veteran whose 1954 purchase of a home in a white Louisville neighborhood triggere...
J
Jessie Wakefield
Released
Jessie London Wakefield was an International Labor Defense field representative sent to Harlan County, Kentuck...
C
Charles M. Walker
Released
Charles M. Walker was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Kentucky imprisoned during World War I...
D
Dorothy Ross Weber
Released
Dorothy Ross Weber was an ILD organizer arrested in her room, jailed in the 4 January 1932 raid on the Nationa...
C
Carl Williams
Released
Carl Williams was an Evarts miner jailed in the Harlan roundup after the 5 May 1931 Battle of Evarts, one of t...
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