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Arkansas
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 Arkansas.
94Documented
0In custody
81Released
Eras of repression in Arkansas
Where Arkansas’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1910s 53
1930s 29
2020s 6
1950s 2
1980s 1
1970s 1
Recent dashboard entries from Arkansas
The newest published events and reporting located in Arkansas, updated automatically from the live dashboard.
Prosecution
Charges against Arkansas governor's-mansion protester Olivia Thompson to be dropped after six months of good behavior
Protest
Little Rock Central High students walk out and march to the Arkansas Capitol over ICE
Protest
Over a dozen protest ICE outside the Little Rock Homeland Security office
Protest
Daily anti-ICE protests outside Little Rock's DHS deportation hub
Protest
Thousands line the Broadway Bridge for the Little Rock No Kings protest
Protest
Thousands rally on Dickson Street for a Fayetteville No Kings protest
Arrest
A counter-protester was arrested for disorderly conduct at the "No Kings" rally in Hot Springs, Arkansas
Documented cases
94 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
Willie Sue Blagden
Released
Willie Sue Blagden was a Memphis writer and social worker who traveled with Presbyterian minister Claude C. Wi...
Ed Ware
Released
Ed Ware was one of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Ware" defendants — Black sharecroppers sentenced t...
Claude C. Williams
Released
Claude Clossey Williams was a Presbyterian minister, labor organizer, and civil-rights activist. After relief...
William Wordlaw
Released
William Wordlaw was one of the "Elaine Twelve," and one of the six "Ware" defendants — Black sharecroppers sen...
W
Worth Long
Worth Long was a SNCC Executive Committee member and Philander Smith College student jailed during the Novembe...
W
Winfield Anderson
Released
Winfield Anderson was one of the Black workers subjected to forced labor on Arkansas city marshal PaulD.Peache...
H
Henry Avant
Released
Henry Avant was one of the Black sharecroppers imprisoned after the Elaine massacre of September–October 1919...
J
John Austin Babbs
Released
John Austin Babbs was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Arkansas imprisoned during World War I...
E
Ed Baker
Released
Ed Baker was one of the Black sharecroppers imprisoned after the Elaine massacre of September–October 1919 in...
J
Jim Ball
Jim Ball was a Black Southern Tenant Farmers Union member imprisoned in Arkansas during the union’s organizing...
S
Sam Barber
Released
Sam Barber was one of the Black sharecroppers imprisoned after the Elaine massacre of September–October 1919 i...
D
David Benson (Southern Tenant Farmers Union organizer)
David Benson was a Southern Tenant Farmers Union organizer loaned by the Workers Alliance during the 1936 Arka...
C
Christopher Columbus Blakey
Released
Christopher Blake was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Arkansas imprisoned during World War I...
J
Jesse F. Blakey
Released
Jesse F. Blakey was a conscientious objector from Arkansas imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for...
A
Abe Brown
Released
Abe Brown was one of the Black sharecroppers imprisoned after the Elaine massacre of September–October 1919 in...
H
Horace Bryan
Released
Horace Bryan was an Arkansas relief-workers' organizer and United Mine Workers member from Greenwood. He was j...
R
R. L. Butler
Released
R. L. Butler was a Black schoolteacher jailed at Marked Tree, Arkansas in the 1935 raids on the Southern Tenan...
J
Jim Caruthers
Released
Jim Caruthers was a Black defendant held at Tucker Farm penitentiary in Arkansas after a rape conviction and d...
B
Bubbles Clayton
Released
Bubbles Clayton was a Black defendant held at Tucker Farm penitentiary in Arkansas after a rape conviction and...
J
J. C. Crenshaw
Released
The Rev. J. C. Crenshaw was president of the Little Rock branch of the NAACP. After city officials demanded th...
W
Will Curry
Released
Will Curry was one of the Black sharecroppers imprisoned after the Elaine massacre of September–October 1919 i...
T
T. Dixon
Released
T. Dixon was one of the Black sharecroppers imprisoned after the Elaine massacre of September–October 1919 in...
C
Caroline Drew
Released
Caroline Drew was a labor organizer arrested 'on suspicion' at Forrest City, Arkansas during the June 1936 Ben...
B
B. Earl
Released
B. Earl was one of the Black sharecroppers imprisoned after the Elaine massacre of September–October 1919 in P...
Institutions in Arkansas
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Arkansas that appear in the census’s case files.
Arkansas State Penitentiary
47 cases
Tucker Farm Penitentiary
2 cases
Sebastian County JailFort Smith, Arkansas
1 case
Cummins Unit
1 case