Learn More → State by State
Alabama
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 Alabama.
280Documented
5In custody
155Released
3Awaiting trial
Eras of repression in Alabama
Where Alabama’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1930s 176
1960s 36
1970s 26
2020s 11
1950s 11
1980s 4
Recent dashboard entries from Alabama
The newest published events and reporting located in Alabama, updated automatically from the live dashboard.
Protest
About 400 march silently to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in an 'All Roads Lead to the South' voting-rights action
Protest
Thousands attend protests in Selma and Montgomery for voting rights
Prosecution
The Justice Department indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 federal fraud and money-laundering counts; the civil-rights group pleaded not guilty, called it a vindictive, politically motivated prosecution, and moved to dismiss the case
Prosecution
Fairhope "No Kings" costume protester Renea Gamble acquitted on all charges
Arrest
Woman in an inflatable costume arrested at the Fairhope No Kings protest
Protest
About 5,000 rally at Railroad Park for a Birmingham No Kings protest
Protest
A No Kings rally draws a crowd at the Houston County Courthouse in Dothan
Protest
Jeana Gamble arrested in a costume at an Alabama "No Kings" protest; acquitted of all charges
Documented cases
280 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
Bernard Lee
Released
Bernard Scott Lee was a student civil-rights activist, Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizer and...
John Lewis
Released
John Lewis was a leader in nonviolent direct action who built his public life around nonviolent direct action,...
John David Maguire
Released
John David Maguire, an assistant professor of religion at Wesleyan University, was arrested in Montgomery, Ala...
James McColley
Released
James McColley was one of five young Black men detained in the 1936 Huntsville, Alabama investigation into the...
Ronnie Miller
Ronnie Miller was an Alabama11 hunger striker imprisoned at Kilby Correctional Facility. A January 2021 Jerich...
Woodrow Mills
Released
Woodrow Mills was one of five young Black men detained in the 1936 Huntsville, Alabama investigation into the...
Olen Montgomery
Released
Olen Montgomery was one of the nine Black teenagers prosecuted in the Scottsboro case. On March 25, 1931 nine...
J. J. Moore
Released
J. J. Moore participated in the Selma voting-rights campaign as a teenager. On January 19, 1965, he joined his...
Richard Morrisroe
Released
Richard Morrisroe was a Chicago priest and Catholic Interracial Council member. He survived a shooting shortly...
E. D. Nixon
Released
Edgar Daniel Nixon was a Pullman porter, union organizer, longtime NAACP leader, and a principal organizer of...
Clarence Norris
Released
Clarence Norris was one of the nine Black teenagers prosecuted in the Scottsboro case. On March 25, 1931 nine...
L. P. Gray
L. P. Gray was an Alabama leader of the United Rubber Workers Union. An individually captioned photograph repo...
Rosa Parks
Released
Rosa Parks was the Montgomery seamstress and NAACP secretary whose arrest on December 1, 1955 for refusing to...
Haywood Patterson
Released
Haywood Patterson was one of the nine Black teenagers prosecuted in the Scottsboro case. On March 25, 1931 nin...
Willie Peterson
Willie Peterson was a Black coal miner and World War I veteran from Birmingham, Alabama. Police arrested him o...
John Thomas Porter
Released
John Thomas Porter was the pastor of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham and once an assistant to Martin...
Ozie Powell
Released
Ozie Powell was one of the nine Black teenagers prosecuted in the Scottsboro case. On March 25, 1931 nine Blac...
Jerry Lee Pugh
Jerry Lee Pugh was an Alabama prisoner whose letters about unsafe prison conditions led to the class-action ca...
Tia Pugh
Released
Black Mobile, Alabama woman who became one of the first federal prosecutions of the 2020 George Floyd uprising...
Willie Roberson
Released
Willie Roberson was one of the nine Black teenagers prosecuted in the Scottsboro case. On March 25, 1931 nine...
Ruby Sales
Released
Ruby Sales organized with SNCC in Alabama. Her 1965 imprisonment preceded the attack in which Jonathan Daniels...
Robert Shelton
Released
Robert Shelton, the Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America — then the largest Klan organization in the...
Fred Shuttlesworth
Released
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was one of the central leaders of the Birmingham civil-rights movement. He became past...
Wirt Taylor
Released
Wirt R. Taylor was an Unemployed Council organizer in Birmingham, Alabama. On November 7, 1932, he and Alice B...
Institutions in Alabama
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Alabama that appear in the census’s case files.
Birmingham City JailBirmingham, Alabama
20 cases
Kilby PrisonMontgomery, Alabama
11 cases
Atmore State PrisonAtmore, Alabama
8 cases
Holman PrisonAtmore, Alabama
7 cases
Montgomery City JailMontgomery, Alabama
4 cases
Jefferson County Jail (Birmingham, Alabama)Birmingham, Alabama
4 cases
Montgomery County JailMontgomery, Alabama
3 cases
Etowah County JailGadsden, Alabama
1 case