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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

Documented cases

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

J
John Catchings
Released
John Catchings worked at Republic Steel's Thomas furnace in Birmingham, Alabama, and lived with his wife and s...
M
Minion Clifton
Released
Minion Clifton was a poor white farmer in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. Authorities arrested him on an arson cha...
A
Andrew Cobb
Released
Andrew Cobb was an Alabama sharecropper held in Macon County Jail at Tuskegee during the repression of the Sha...
E
Edgar Cobb
Edgar Cobb was an Alabama sharecropper imprisoned during the December 1932 repression of the Share Croppers Un...
W
Wilbur Cobb
Wilbur Cobb was an Alabama sharecropper imprisoned during the December 1932 repression of the Share Croppers U...
R
Robert Earl Council
Robert Earl Council is an Alabama prison organizer and whistleblower featured in the documentary The Alabama S...
R
Ronia Curese
Ronia Curese was a Black worker in Eufaula, Alabama. According to a worker's letter to the International Labor...
J
John Dailey
Released
John Dailey was a Birmingham worker arrested in the October 1934 literature raid. The October 25 Birmingham di...
S
Sol Davis
Released
Sol Davis was a Black worker jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, under the Downs Literature Ordinance on October 16...
G
Glenn Diamond
Released
Mobile, Alabama activist (also known as Casmarah Mani), a former member of the prison group Inmates For Action...
W
Will Drake
Released
Will Drake was a Black sharecropper jailed after the July 1931 attack on the Share Croppers' Union at Camp Hil...
E
Ervin Edwards
Released
Ervin Edwards was prosecuted after Mobile police officer Henry Booth was killed during an August 14, 1979 stru...
D
David Edwin
The June 22 report individually lists eight Black workers arrested during home raids after the Cotta-Seville c...
N
Nora Elliot
Arrested during the same Birmingham raid associated with the Downs Ordinance prosecutions of Robert Wood and R...
E
Elroy Embry
Released
Elroy Embry was a Black student jailed with the white theological student R. Edwin King in Montgomery, Alabama...
J
Joe Evans
Page 2's continuation of the Birmingham iron-ore strike report individually names Joe Evans, Ben Winston and W...
J
John Ferguson (Scottsboro witness, 1931)
Lester Carter names John Ferguson among the white train witnesses confined in Scottsboro during the initial 19...
J
John Finch
Released
John Finch was a Black sharecropper jailed at Dadeville, Alabama, after the July 1931 Camp Hill repression of...
T
Tommy Finch
Released
Tommy Finch was a Black sharecropper jailed at Dadeville, Alabama, after the July 1931 Camp Hill repression of...
T
T. L. Fisher
Released
The Rev. T. L. Fisher was a Birmingham movement minister and one of the eight petitioners in Walker v. City of...
B
Brian Fleming
Released
Brian Joseph Fleming, also known as Brian Joseph McSulla, was a U.S.-based Irish republican activist associate...
M
Marion C. Flowers
Released
Marion C. Flowers was identified in contemporary rosters of prisoners confined for conscientious or antiwar re...
J
John Foster (Selma investigator, 1935)
John Foster was a Black labor activist from Birmingham jailed in Selma, Alabama, while helping investigate rep...
L
Laurent Frantz
Released
Laurent Frantz was a Birmingham civil-liberties lawyer and Communist Party member. Police arrested him without...

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