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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.

208Documented
6In custody
164Released
2Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Virginia

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

1800s 42 2020s 30 1970s 28 1930s 20 2010s 18 2000s 18

Documented cases

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

J
Jeff Keith
Released
Jeff Keith was a conscientious objector imprisoned at Lewisburg and Petersburg during the 1960s.
T
Timothy Ryan Kennedy
Released
Timothy Ryan Kennedy was convicted of attempted arson in connection with the January 2004 ELF-claimed Molotov-...
J
Joseph P. Klein
Joseph P. Klein is identified in Page 1, Communist Party section organizer, as recently arrested on vagrancy c...
B
Bill Kuykendall
Released
William E. “Bill” Kuykendall was a control-room operator trainee at Virginia Electric and Power Company’s Surr...
R
Robert LaDue
Released
Robert LaDue was listed among imprisoned war objectors in contemporary CCCO reports from 1970 and 1971.
R
Ronald LaDue
Released
Ronald LaDue was listed among imprisoned war objectors in contemporary CCCO reports from 1970 and 1971.
G
Guilford Lee
Guilford Lee is a gay prisoner at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Virginia who sought legal assistance and filed...
N
Norvel Lee
Released
Norvel Lee was a boxer, educator and civil rights pioneer from Eagle Rock, Virginia. On September 14, 1948, th...
R
Reginald Leftwich
Released
Reginald Leftwich was a Black farmworker held on a murder charge in the Lynchburg area of Virginia in 1933. He...
A
Allen Leonard
Allen was a New York-born Richmond engraver arrested at West Point by Major Tomlin and jailed for expressing a...
A
Aaron Labe Linas
Released
Aaron Labe Linas was convicted of conspiracy to damage and destroy property by means of fire and explosives in...
J
John Mason
Released
John Mason was from Accomac County, Virginia. John Mason was confined about six months on a charge of smugglin...
M
Mohammad Mazhar
Released
Mohammad Mazhar, Pakistani citizen, brother of dhow captain Muhammad Pahlawan; indicted December 4, 2024 in th...
J
John W. McCabe
Released
John W. McCabe was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Virginia imprisoned during World War I. C...
C
Connor Joris McCarty
Released
Connor Joris McCarty joined a March 11, 2024 Palestine-solidarity action that blocked Interstate 95 near Richm...
J
James A. Merrill Jr.
Released
James A. Merrill Jr. was a control-room operator trainee at Virginia Electric and Power Company’s Surry nuclea...
S
Sarah Elizabeth Milkowski Dahlgren
Released
Sarah Elizabeth Milkowski Dahlgren joined a March 11, 2024 Palestine-solidarity action that blocked Interstate...
L
Larry Moreland
Larry Moreland was imprisoned after an antiwar protest that marked the Pentagon with Reagan-Herod graffiti dur...
T
Thomas Morgan
Released
Thomas Morgan was a conscientious objector from Virginia imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for re...
A
Arthur Moskovitz
Released
Arthur Moskovitz appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’1969 current-prisoner lists of d...
J
Jay Allen Moss
Released
Jay Allen Moss was imprisoned at Petersburg for conscientious refusal of military service during the 1960s.
I
Izhar Muhammad
Released
Izhar Muhammad, Pakistani citizen and crewmember of the dhow Yunus, indicted August 7, 2024 alongside Ghufran...
D
David Muserlian
Released
David Muserlian was listed among imprisoned draft and conscientious resisters in contemporary CCCO reports fro...
P
Percy H. Peters
Released
Percy H. Peters was a Church of the Brethren conscientious objector from Virginia imprisoned during World War...

Institutions in Virginia

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

Castle ThunderRichmond, Virginia
22 cases
Castle GodwinRichmond, Virginia
21 cases
Occoquan Workhouse
15 cases
Virginia State PenitentiaryRichmond, Virginia
12 cases
Occoquan Workhouse / DC JailLorton, Virginia
11 cases
Charles Town Jail (Jefferson County)Charles Town, Virginia
7 cases
FCI PetersburgHopewell, Virginia
6 cases
Federal Reformatory, PetersburgPetersburg, Virginia
3 cases