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Virginia

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 Virginia.

110Documented
2In custody
98Released
2Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Virginia

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

1800s 30 2010s 13 2000s 12 1910s 12 1970s 10 2020s 9

Documented cases

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

Jeffrey Sterling
Released
Jeffrey Sterling is a former CIA officer who leaked state secrets to the public (namely, the US's plan to give...
Badar Khan Suri
Released
Badar Khan Suri is an Indian researcher and scholar at Georgetown University who was detained by U.S. immigrat...
David Truong
Released
David Truong — born Trương Đình Hùng in Saigon on September 2, 1945 — was a Vietnamese anti–Vietnam War activi...
A
Ali Al-Timimi
Released
A spiritual leader and lecturer at Dar Al-Arqam, Ali Al-Timimi was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Virgini...
J
John A. Atwood
Released
John A. Atwood, of Loudoun County, Virginia, was held about eight months, never brought to trial, on charges o...
S
Steve Baggarly
Released
Steve Baggarly is a Catholic Worker at the Sadako Peace House in Norfolk, Virginia, and a participant in multi...
R
Roby Lee Barnes
Released
Roby Lee Barnes was a Quaker conscientious objector from Virginia imprisoned during World War I. Court-martial...
W
William Baylis
Released
William Baylis was the captain of the schooner Keziah and an Underground Railroad operative known to leaders s...
A
Alfred Campbell Belt
Released
Alfred Campbell Belt, of Loudoun County, Virginia, was a Loudoun County civilian detainee for whom two Union m...
S
Sabri Benkahla
Released
Connected to the Virginia jihad network, a group of men who played paintball as a means to train for combat un...
J
Joe Benson
Released
Joe Benson was arrested at Norfolk, Virginia under a "move-on" ordinance for unemployed organizing in 1933; hi...
E
E. L. Bentley
Released
E. L. Bentley, of Leesburg, Virginia, was a Leesburg citizen held as a hostage for civilians captured by Mosby...
F
Franklin S. Berry
Released
Franklin S. Berry was a conscientious objector from Virginia imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed fo...
A
Adam Blackwell
Released
Adam Virden Blackwell, age 20, was convicted of criminal conspiracy and aiding and abetting in connection with...
A
Allen Blitz
Released
Allen Blitz — a marcher who returned fire as the Klansmen and Nazis opened fire — was one of the Communist Wor...
D
Dorothy Blitz
Released
Dorothy Blitz, of Martinsville, Virginia, was one of the Communist Workers Party anti-Klan demonstrators charg...
C
Carl E. Bowman
Released
Carl E. Bowman was a conscientious objector from Virginia imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for r...
S
Slaughter Bradford
Released
Slaughter Bradford, of Culpeper County, Virginia, was a Culpeper County civilian held as a prisoner who refuse...
I
Ivan Brobeck
Released
Ivan Brobeck was a Marine who opposed returning to Iraq after serving there in 2004. He went to Canada, later...
J
James Carrington
Released
James Carrington was a young Black man convicted in 1970 in Appomattox, Virginia of raping a white friend and...
A
Ali Asad Chandia
Released
Ali Asad Chandia was a third-grade teacher who provided material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was a driver f...
W
William Cross
Released
William Cross, of Leesburg, Virginia, was a Leesburg citizen held as a hostage for civilians captured by Confe...
O
Ollie Dawson
Ollie Dawson was a Black worker held in the Norfolk, Virginia jail — in the cell next to Archie Gibbs — and, t...
C
Charles H. Drummond
Released
Charles H. Drummond, of Norfolk, Virginia, was brought from Fort Norfolk after 'a sort of trial' and confined...

Institutions in Virginia

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

Occoquan Workhouse
15 cases
FCI PetersburgHopewell, Virginia
11 cases
Occoquan Workhouse / DC JailLorton, Virginia
11 cases
Virginia State PenitentiaryRichmond, Virginia
8 cases
Charles Town Jail (Jefferson County)Charles Town, Virginia
7 cases
Castle GodwinRichmond, Virginia
3 cases
Federal Reformatory, PetersburgPetersburg, Virginia
3 cases
Norfolk Naval Station (USS Iowa) — Nuclear Navy Plowshares
2 cases