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Minnesota
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 Minnesota.
155Documented
8In custody
144Released
1Awaiting trial
Eras of repression in Minnesota
Where Minnesota’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1910s 43
2020s 38
2010s 20
1940s 16
1970s 11
1980s 9
Documented cases
155 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
Victor Devon Edwards
In Custody
Victor D. Edwards, 31, of St. Paul was charged in conspiracy with Shador T.C. Jackson and Leroy L.P. Williams...
Fornandous Henderson
In Custody
Molotov arson of Dakota County government building (2020). Sentence: 78 months federal prison. Verified via pu...
Montez Lee
In Custody
Montez Lee is a Black man from Rochester, Minnesota, who became known as one of the political prisoners associ...
Ronald Reed
In Custody
Ronald Reed is a former 60s civil rights activist. In 1969, Reed was also among the students at St. Paul Centr...
Matthew Rupert
In Custody
Matthew Lee Rupert appears in federal case summaries as a defendant charged in Minnesota with offenses connect...
Kyle Wagner
In Custody
Kyle Wagner is a 37-year-old Minneapolis activist who self-identifies as antifascist ("antifa"). On February 5...
Leroy Lemonte Perry Williams
In Custody
Leroy L.P. Williams, 34, of Minneapolis was charged in conspiracy with Shador T.C. Jackson and Victor D. Edwar...
Minnie D. Abbott
Released
Minnie D. Abbott Minnie Abbott was arrested along with many other women in 1917 for picketing for women's suff...
Terry J. Albury
Released
Terry J. Albury was charged under the Espionage Act for leaking to the public many of the FBI's surveillance t...
C. W. Anderson
Released
C. W. Anderson, secretary-treasurer of the Agricultural Workers Indus- trial Union, Local 450, in St. Paul, Mi...
Charles Anding
Released
Charles Anding, from Winona, Minnesota, was arrested on May 25, 1918, for obstructing the draft.
Dennis Banks
Released
Dennis Banks was an Anishinaabe organizer and a co-founder of the American Indian Movement in Minneapolis in 1...
Cyan Bass
Released
Cyan Bass was prosecuted for offenses arising from the George Floyd Uprising protests in Minneapolis in 2020....
Clyde Bellecourt
Released
Clyde Howard Bellecourt was an Ojibwe (White Earth) leader who co-founded the American Indian Movement in Minn...
Vernon Bellecourt
Released
Vernon Bellecourt (WaBun-Inini, 1931–2007), an Anishinaabe (White Earth Ojibwe) leader of the American Indian...
Jacob O. Bentall
Released
Jacob O. Bentall, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, was convicted for making a speech during his campaign as the So...
Greg Boertje-Obed
Released
Greg Boertje-Obed is a Catholic pacifist and anti-nuclear activist best known for the 2012 “Transform Now Plow...
Barry Bondhus
Released
In February 1966, 19-year-old Barry Bondhus of Big Lake, Minnesota, dumped two buckets of human feces (collect...
G. J. Bourg
Released
G. J. Bourg, originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, was secretary of the IWW's Kansas City (Missouri) local w...
James P. Cannon
Released
National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP); leading figure in American Trotskyism. Born in Roseda...
Grace Carlson
Released
Socialist Workers Party leader and 1940 SWP candidate for U.S. Senate from Minnesota, with a Ph.D. in educatio...
Oscar Coover
Released
Veteran Minneapolis electrical worker and Trotskyist who was among the founding leaders of the Socialist Worke...
Marvin Allen Davidov
Released
Born in Detroit on August 26, 1931, moved to St. Paul in 1949 to attend Macalester College and served in the U...
Sharon Day
Released
Sharon M. Day is an Ojibwe activist, artist, and writer of the Bois Forte Band and the founder and longtime ex...
Institutions in Minnesota
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Minnesota that appear in the census’s case files.
FCI WasecaWaseca, Minnesota
16 cases
FCI SandstoneSandstone, Minnesota
13 cases
U.S. District Court, District of MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota
8 cases
Ramsey County District CourtSt. Paul, Minnesota
7 cases
White Earth Tribal Court
3 cases
FPC DuluthDuluth, Minnesota
1 case
Ramsey County WorkhouseSaint Paul, Minnesota
1 case
ICE detention (Minnesota and Texas facilities)
1 case