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New York

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 New York.

2,077Documented
25In custody
1,084Released
7Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in New York

Where New York’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1930s 715 1940s 176 1970s 173 1910s 169 1920s 165 1950s 161

Documented cases

2,077 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

L
L. Johnson
L. Johnson was arrested distributing May Day leaflets in Buffalo. The May 12 report gives no precise arrest da...
L
Lawrence Johnson
Lawrence Johnson was arrested in a police raid at the Communist Party headquarters at 200 Ellicott Street in B...
M
Manning Johnson
Manning Johnson is identified in Page 6’s August 12 Buffalo dispatch as the recent Communist district organize...
R
Rickey Johnson
Released
Rickey Johnson, of New York, sent threatening messages on January 30, 2021 to U.S. Senator Joe Manchin and Fox...
W
Wilbur Johnson
Wilbur Johnson (printed alias Jusmeallah) is individually named in the March 1973 Attica News roster of Attica...
D
David Johnson
David Johnson, a Black member of Upholsterers Bedding Local 140, was arrested by two detectives while working...
J
Judy Jones
Released
Judy Jones was individually named among women arrested at Seneca Army Depot during August 1984. The report exp...
M
Milton Jones
Milton Jones (printed alias Babu) is individually named in the March 1973 Attica News roster of Attica uprisin...
M
Morven M. Jones
Released
Morven M. Jones is identified in Marshall as one of three New York State civilian agents arrested in Washingto...
V
Victor Jones
Victor Jones, reported aged 28, was a cafeteria striker whom the April 26, 1929 newspaper individually says ha...
W
William Joscelyn
Released
William Joscelyn was a Delaware County, New York Anti-Renter imprisoned after the August 7, 1845 killing of Un...
L
Leon Josephson
Released
Leon Josephson was a New York attorney and Communist Party activist — an anti-fascist who in the 1930s had bee...
C
Charles Jungle
Charles Jungle was a Black worker beaten and jailed in Brooklyn on a felonious-assault accusation after interv...
E
Elizabeth Just
Released
Elizabeth Just was a 20-year-old New York University student sentenced to 30 days in the Women's House of Dete...
J
Jennie Kacen
Released
Jennie Kacen was one of six people arrested when New York police attacked a mass picket line supporting the Ed...
P
Philip Kagner
Philip Kagner was a member of the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union arrested during the fur strike in ear...
V
Vincent Kaladz
Vincent Kaladz was named with Samuel Kallman as still held after the May 11, 1936 New York waterfront picket a...
P
Paul Kalechman
Paul Kalechman was a garment worker prosecuted during the 1926 New York garment strike. The January 29, 1927 D...
S
Samuel Kallman
Samuel Kallman was one of two seamen still held for later hearings after the May 11, 1936 police attack on the...
M
Minnie Kalnin
Released
Minnie Kalnin was a Communist Party member. Minnie Kalnin served a sentence in the New York Women's Prison at...
J
Joseph P. Kamp
Released
Joseph P. Kamp was a right-wing pamphleteer who ran the Constitutional Educational League, a militantly anti-c...
A
Anna Kaplan
Anna Kaplan is named in the Brighton bread-strike court report in the February 19, 1932 Daily Worker. Five day...
B
Benjamin Kaplan
Released
Benjamin Kaplan was arrested July 31, 1929 for speaking at an antiwar preparatory meeting at 27th Street and S...
H
Herman D. Kaplan
Released
Herman D. Kaplan was a conscientious objector from New York imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for...

Institutions in New York

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

Ellis Island Immigration StationNew York, New York
215 cases
Fort LafayetteNew York, New York
201 cases
Manhattan House of Detention (the Tombs)New York, New York
21 cases
Attica Correctional FacilityAttica, New York
20 cases
Sing Sing Correctional FacilityOssining, New York
15 cases
Ellis IslandNew York, New York
15 cases
Metropolitan Correctional Center, New YorkNew York, New York
13 cases
Metropolitan Correctional CenterNew York, New York
10 cases