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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.

169Documented
8In custody
158Released
1Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Minnesota

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

1910s 43 2020s 38 1940s 29 2010s 20 1970s 11 1980s 10

Documented cases

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

M
Minnie Kohn
Released
Minnie Kohn was a Minneapolis WPA sewing-project striker jailed after the 1939 strike. She was the only woman...
J
John Kos
Released
John Kos was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusi...
F
Francis Kroncke
Released
Member of the Little Falls raiding team (with Michael Therriault) in the July 10, 1970 Minnesota Eight actions...
K
Karl Kuehn
Released
Member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) or Minneapolis Teamsters Local 544 prosecuted in the 1941 Minneapo...
E
Ernest T. Carl Laub
Released
Ernest T. Carl Laub was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...
P
Polly H. Mann
Released
Born in Lonoke, Arkansas, Polly Mann co-founded Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) with Marianne Hamilton a...
P
Philip Masonovich
Released
Philip Masonovich was a Montenegrin immigrant iron miner caught up in the 1916 Mesaba Range strike in Minnesot...
J
Joe McCarthy
Released
Joe McCarthy, an organizer and delegate for the Lumber Workers Industrial Union in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was...
M
Milton McLean
Released
Milton McLean was a Minneapolis WPA striker imprisoned following the 1939 strike against changes to federal wo...
M
Marian Mollin
Released
Marian Mollin was a peace activist who later became a historian. She described imprisonment for Honeywell Proj...
L
Larry Morlan
Released
Catholic peace activist arrested in a Plowshares disarmament action against nuclear weapons systems in the 198...
T
Thomas Wilder Moseley
Released
Thomas Wilder Moseley, 29, was charged in Minneapolis, MN with possessing firearms and ammunition while being...
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...
D
Don Olson
Released
Member of the Winona raiding team (with Peter Simmons and Brad Beneke) arrested in the July 10, 1970 Minnesota...
E
Elmer N. Olson
Released
Elmer N. Olson was a Pentecostal conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-ma...
E
Erik Oseland
Released
Erik Oseland was a member of the RNC Welcoming Committee, an anarchist/anti-authoritarian collective that orga...
E
Edward Palmquist
Released
Member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) or Minneapolis Teamsters Local 544 prosecuted in the 1941 Minneapo...
J
James A. Peterson
Released
James A. Peterson, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, began serving a four-year prison sentence in Leavenworth Peniten...
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, a farmer from Louverne, Minnesota, was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to...
W
William Riley
Released
William Riley was a Minneapolis WPA striker imprisoned following the 1939 strike against changes to federal wo...
D
Dylan Shakespeare Robinson
Released
Dylan Shakespeare Robinson and three co-defendants (Davon De-Andre Turner, Branden Michael Wolfe, Bryce Michae...

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