Skip to content
Learn More → State by State

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.

278Documented
7In custody
215Released
15Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Minnesota

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

1910s 52 2020s 50 1940s 44 1930s 33 1970s 25 2010s 19

Documented cases

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

J
Jerry Malmanger
Released
Jerry Malmanger was listed among imprisoned draft and conscientious resisters in contemporary CCCO reports fro...
I
Irma Martin
Irma Martin was collecting Communist Party ballot signatures in Duluth, Minnesota when an armed gang seized he...
C
C. Mattson
C. Mattson was the Hennepin County Central Committee treasurer and was jailed for failure to register, accordi...
J
Joe McCarthy
Released
Joe McCarthy was an organizer and delegate for the Lumber Workers Industrial Union in Minneapolis, Minnesota....
E
Ernest McDuffy
Ernest McDuffy was arrested in January 1932. Printed Ern. McDuffy in the victims-of-national-oppression secti...
M
Milton McLean
Released
Milton McLean was a Minneapolis WPA striker imprisoned following the 1939 strike against changes to federal wo...
D
Douglas Misterek
Awaiting Trial
Douglas Misterek is one of the Minnesota 15, a group federally indicted in June 2026 over organizing and demon...
E
Elwood Moore
Released
Elwood Moore appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’1969 current-prisoner lists of draft...
W
William Morgan
Awaiting Trial
William Morgan is one of the Minnesota 15, a group federally indicted in June 2026 over organizing and demonst...
L
Larry Morlan
Released
Larry Morlan was a Catholic peace activist arrested in a Plowshares disarmament action against nuclear weapons...
T
Tom Moseley
Released
Thomas Wilder Moseley was charged in Minneapolis, MN with possessing firearms and ammunition while being an un...
J
J. J. Noah
J. J. Noah was arrested on July 13, 1862. Marshall identifies Noah as a Minnesota lawyer and former Union maj...
M
Marie Nord
Released
Sister Marie Nord was a Minnesota Franciscan sister whose ministry was hospitality work for women. The People...
S
Sauder M. Nygaard
Released
Sauder M. Nygaard was a Pentecostal conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court...
E
Emil Nygard
Released
Emil Nygard was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for ref...
E
Elmer N. Olson
Released
Elmer N. Olson was a Pentecostal conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-ma...
R
Roy Orgon
Released
Roy Orgon was a Minneapolis labor organizer associated with Local 544-CIO’s Federal Workers Section, which org...
M
Malcolm Parker
Malcolm “Max” Parker was a conscientious objector imprisoned at Sandstone Correctional Institution during the...
G
George Payne
George Payne was named among workers arrested after the April 6, 1934 Minneapolis City Hall demonstration for...
J
James A. Peterson
Released
James A. Peterson was from Minneapolis, Minnesota. James A. Peterson began serving a four-year prison sentence...
S
Seth Peterson Jr.
Released
Seth Peterson Jr. was listed among imprisoned draft and conscientious resisters in contemporary CCCO reports f...
M
Myron Philips
Released
Myron Philips was a Minneapolis WPA striker imprisoned following the 1939 strike against changes to federal wo...
C
Charles Plann
Released
Charles Plann was a farmer from Louverne, Minnesota. Charles Plann was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chic...
R
Ray Rainbolt
Released
Ray Rainbolt was a Dakota labor organizer in Minneapolis and a Local 544 organizer and head of its Union Defen...

Institutions in Minnesota

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

FCI SandstoneSandstone, Minnesota
21 cases
FCI WasecaWaseca, Minnesota
9 cases
Ramsey County District CourtSt. Paul, Minnesota
7 cases
U.S. District Court, District of MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota
5 cases
White Earth Tribal Court
3 cases
Ramsey County JailSt. Paul, Minnesota
2 cases
Hennepin County JailMinneapolis, Minnesota
1 case
FPC DuluthDuluth, Minnesota
1 case