Skip to content
Learn More → State by State

Mississippi

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 Mississippi.

387Documented
0In custody
383Released

Eras of repression in Mississippi

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

1960s 365 1970s 7 1930s 4 1910s 4 1950s 3 2010s 1

Documented cases

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

Sally Jane Rowley
Released
Sally Jane Rowley was a New York secretary and rode a Greyhound bus from Nashville to Jackson with nine other...
Heath Cliff Rush
Released
Heath Cliff Rush was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 9, 1961, for participating in the Freedom Rides...
Leon Russ Jr.
Released
Leon Russ Jr. was born about 1938 in Shreveport, Louisiana, and was living in Los Angeles and was arrested on...
Henry Schwarzschild
Released
Henry Schwarzschild was a religious official associated with a Highland Park, Illinois congregation, about thi...
Judith Norene Scroggins
Released
Judith Norene Scroggins was a secretary at an NAACP branch office in Cincinnati, born about 1942 and traveled...
Charles Grier Sellers Jr.
Released
Charles Grier Sellers Jr. was a University of California, Berkeley history professor, born in Charlotte, North...
Rick Stanley Ogilvie Sheviakov
Released
Rick Stanley Ogilvie Sheviakov was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on July 29, 1961, for participating in th...
Kenneth Martin Shilman
Released
Kenneth Martin Shilman was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 2, 1961, for participating in the Freedom...
Jorgia B. Yvonne Siegel
Released
Jorgia B. Yvonne Siegel was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 20, 1961, for participating in the Freed...
Carol Ruth Silver
Released
Carol Ruth Silver was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 7, 1961, for participating in the Freedom Ride...
Obadiah Lee Simms
Released
Obadiah Lee Simms was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 7, 1961, for participating in the Freedom Ride...
Etta Marie Simpson
Released
Etta Marie Simpson was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on May 28, 1961, for participating in the Freedom Rid...
Euvester Simpson
Released
Euvester Simpson was a Mississippi SNCC organizer jailed with Fannie Lou Hamer and other civil-rights workers...
Geoffrey Sedgwick Simpson
Released
Geoffrey Sedgwick Simpson was one of the fifteen Episcopal clergymen arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on Sept...
Pauline Kathleen Sims
Released
Pauline Kathleen Sims was a CORE activist born June 20, 1939 in Putney, England and was arrested with George R...
Felix Singer
Released
Felix Singer was a 32-year-old Freedom Rider from Chicago jailed at the Parchman state penitentiary in Mississ...
Helen Irene Singleton
Released
Helen Irene Singleton was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on July 30, 1961, for participating in the Freedom...
Robert Singleton
Released
Robert Singleton was a UCLA student, born about 1936, who later chaired the economics department at Loyola Mar...
Morton Bruce Slater
Released
Morton Bruce Slater was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on July 8, 1961, for participating in the Freedom Ri...
Jerome H. Smith
Released
Jerome H. Smith was a twenty-two-year-old CORE organizer and former Southern University student from New Orlea...
Leon Felton Smith Jr.
Released
Leon Felton Smith Jr. was a thirty-one-year-old assistant pastor at the Holiness Church of God in Cleveland, O...
Mary Jean Smith
Released
Mary Jean Smith was a nineteen-year-old Tennessee State University student arrested in Jackson, Mississippi on...
Shirley B. Smith
Released
Shirley B. Smith was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on July 16, 1961, for participating in the Freedom Ride...
Woollcott Smith
Released
Woollcott Smith was a Michigan State University student, born about 1941, who later became a statistics profes...

Institutions in Mississippi

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

Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman)
11 cases
Mississippi state and federal courtsJackson, Mississippi
10 cases
Montgomery County Jail (Winona, MS)Winona, Mississippi
4 cases
Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman Farm)Sunflower County, Mississippi
3 cases
Hinds County Jail / Laurel CourthouseLaurel, Mississippi
1 case
Pike County Jail / Magnolia (McComb, MS)Magnolia, Mississippi
1 case
Hinds County Jail (Jackson, MS)Jackson, Mississippi
1 case
Mississippi State Penitentiary at ParchmanParchman, Mississippi
1 case