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Massachusetts

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 Massachusetts.

343Documented
1In custody
203Released
3Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Massachusetts

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

1930s 103 1920s 40 1800s 32 1970s 30 1980s 27 1910s 27

Documented cases

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

L
Leonard Doherty
Released
Leonard Doherty was a member of the Marine Workers’ Industrial Union and Trade Union Unity League who supporte...
D
Donaigian
Released
Donaigian (Lawrence, 1931) was among three workers arrested in a raid on the National Textile Workers Union of...
B
Bedros Donegian
Released
Bedros Donegian was an Armenian weaver and National Textile Workers Union activist in Lawrence, Massachusetts....
E
Elizabeth Donnelley
Elizabeth Donnelley was a Textile Mill Committees children’s organizer arrested with several unnamed children...
S
Scott Duffy
Released
Scott Duffy was jailed following an anti-nuclear protest at the GTE research facility in Westboro, Massachuset...
M
Margaret D’Angostino
Margaret was a worker arrested during the 1931 Lawrence textile strike. The November 9, 1931 Lawrence strike...
S
Samuel Ely
Released
Samuel Ely was a leader of resistance to Massachusetts courts and state policies in 1782, before Shays’ Rebell...
A
Andrew D. Emerald
Released
Andrew D. Emerald was arrested on April 1, 2026 after a federal indictment accused him of posting threats agai...
B
Benjamin Fairbanks
Released
Benjamin Fairbanks was a Dedham farmer prosecuted over an anti-government liberty pole under the Sedition Act....
T
Tom Farley
Tom Farley was individually identified as arrested March 7, 1984 at Draper Lab in Cambridge, convicted April 1...
D
Delano Farrar
Delano Farrar was a Boston Black Panther deputy minister of defense arrested at Guido’s Pizza in Boston on Jan...
M
Margaret Farren
Released
Margaret Farren was jailed following an anti-nuclear protest at the GTE research facility in Westboro, Massach...
A
Anthony Fenelli
Anthony was a worker arrested during the 1931 Lawrence textile strike. The November 9, 1931 Lawrence strike r...
J
Jennie Fichera
Jennie was a worker arrested during the 1931 Lawrence textile strike. The November 9, 1931 Lawrence strike re...
J
Joe Figuerado
Joe Figuerado is identified in Page 3 among three found guilty November 10 of disturbing the peace and loiteri...
D
Dominico Franko
Dominico was a worker arrested during the 1931 Lawrence textile strike. The November 9, 1931 Lawrence strike...
J
Jack Garvine
Released
Jack Garvine was listed among the class-war prisoners on the International Labor Defense's 1930 Winter Relief...
A
A. Gaspar
A. Gaspar was a Portuguese-language labor activist identified at a New Bedford Sacco–Vanzetti memorial in the...
C
Craemen Gethers
Released
Craemen was a Black University of Massachusetts-Amherst student convicted of a 1974 McDonald's robbery and sen...
L
Lewis A. Gilbert
Lewis A. Gilbert was secretary of the Furniture Workers Industrial Union of Greater Boston. After picketing th...
M
Margaret Gilbert
Released
Margaret Gilbert was one of four Massachusetts defendants indicted under the state anti-subversion law for all...
J
Joseph Gomes
Joseph Gomes was individually named among four Potomska Mill pickets arrested in New Bedford on the morning of...
P
Peter Hagelias
Released
Peter Hagelias was the Communist Party section organizer arrested at the Beacon Mill gate in New Bedford on De...
A
A. Harfield
A. Harfield was among three workers arrested in a raid on the National Textile Workers Union office in Lawrenc...

Institutions in Massachusetts

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

Fort WarrenBoston, Massachusetts
75 cases
Norfolk County Jail Dedham, Massachusetts
10 cases
Boston Court House
3 cases
Charlestown State PrisonBoston, Massachusetts
2 cases
Deer Island PrisonBoston, Massachusetts
2 cases
Boston JailBoston, Massachusetts
2 cases
Hampshire County Jail (Northampton)Northampton, Massachusetts
1 case
Salem, MA federal jailSalem, Massachusetts
1 case