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Michigan

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 Michigan.

336Documented
0In custody
216Released
8Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Michigan

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

1930s 74 1980s 51 1910s 47 1920s 34 1950s 22 2020s 20

Documented cases

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

A
Al Larcinese
Released
Al Larcinese was one of the Trenton Seven auto workers sentenced to a week in federal prison for criminal cont...
J
John Latting
John Latting, a friend of Henry Sweet, was one of eleven Black occupants arrested in Detroit on September 9, 1...
C
Charles Lee
Charles Lee was a Black Detroit worker whom labor attorney Maurice Sugar helped obtain a new trial and acquitt...
B
Barbara Lester
Barbara Lester spent a night in jail following an Advent 1982 anti-nuclear prayer service at K.I. Sawyer Air F...
J
James Lindahl
Released
James Lindahl was one of seven Detroit John Reed Club delegates arrested Saturday June 23, 1934 while entering...
A
Axel O. Londall
Released
Axel O. Londall was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Michigan imprisoned during World War I....
J
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was named among ten Communist leaders surrendering in the Bridgman criminal-syndicalism prosecut...
W
William R. Lyman Jr.
Released
William Robert Lyman Jr. was associated with Detroit’s National Workers League and the distribution of far-rig...
C
Charles Lyons
Released
Charles Lyons was arrested on June 21, 1943. Black defendant convicted in the racially asymmetric prosecution...
J
John Mack
John Mack, a militant member of the Mechanics Educational Society of America, was expelled bodily from a local...
J
Joe Mack
Joseph Mack, Ossian Sweet's chauffeur, was one of eleven Black occupants arrested in Detroit on September 9, 1...
R
Rebecca Maisenberg
Released
Rebecca Maisenberg was a Detroit resident whom the government sought to denaturalize based on alleged politica...
B
Bob Marat
Released
Bob Marat was one of two workers arrested when Detroit police raided the Workers Center at 2113 Lycaste Avenue...
G
George Marchuk
George was the Lincoln Park secretary of the Auto Workers Union and a Communist Party member found murdered in...
J
Joni McCoy
Released
Joni McCoy was an anti-nuclear activist whose oral history describes two distinct three-month periods of impri...
A
Arthur McPhaul
Released
Arthur McPhaul was a Black Detroit labor and civil-rights activist and former executive secretary of the Michi...
P
Patricia Mentzer
Released
Patricia Mentzer was jailed for civil contempt after the June 11, 1984 anti-nuclear blockade at Williams Inter...
J
John Merila
John Merila was arrested when the sheriff and copper-company gunmen twice attacked an antiwar parade of 1,500...
T
Taras Meshechek
Taras Meshechek was arrested in the House of Masses in Detroit. The 1920 congressional case summary attributes...
S
Sol Metz
Released
Sol Metz is individually named among the five Williams International peace resisters arrested Good Friday Apri...
P
Paul Michelson
Paul was a New York socialist speaker and organizer arrested in Detroit in May 1917. The Detroit account indi...
S
Steve Miller
Steve Miller, identified as the Metal Workers Industrial League delegate to the Fifth World Congress of the Re...
G
Gary Miron
Gary Miron was imprisoned after a nonviolent protest at Michigan’s Project ELF facility in 1986.
K
Kurt Miron
Kurt Miron was imprisoned for anti-nuclear protests at Michigan’s Project ELF and K.I. Sawyer facilities.

Institutions in Michigan

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

Federal Correctional Institution, MilanMilan, Michigan
6 cases
FCI MilanMilan, Michigan
3 cases
Bay County JailBay City, Michigan
3 cases
Michigan State Prison (Jackson)
3 cases
Wayne County Jail
3 cases
State Prison of Southern MichiganJackson, Michigan
2 cases
Marquette State PrisonMarquette, Michigan
2 cases
Detroit RRMMilan, Michigan
1 case