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California

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 California.

1,527Documented
39In custody
899Released
17Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in California

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

1930s 354 1970s 205 1960s 199 1910s 174 2020s 131 1980s 90

Documented cases

1,527 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

H
H. R. Hanson
Released
H. R. Hanson was an IWW member from Los Angeles. H. R. Hanson received a four-year prison sentence, which he s...
M
Mark C. Harford
Released
Mark C. Harford appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’1969 current-prisoner lists of dr...
D
Diana Lee Harmon
Diana Lee Harmon was arrested at a Marin County roadblock on February17,1976 following alleged gunfire at a La...
D
David Harrington (Oakland picket, 1936)
David Harrington was individually named among arrested pickets at the L. A. Young Steel and Wire Company strik...
E
Ed Harris
Ed Harris, a machinist acting as a labor juror at the El Centro trial, was arrested and subsequently released,...
S
Steve Harris (San Diego, 1969)
A report reprinted from the San Diego Free Press identifies Steve Harris as the man police harassed, beat and...
F
Frances Hart
Released
Frances Hart was an IWW member from Los Angeles. Frances Hart received a four-year prison sentence, which he s...
W
William Harvey
Released
William Harvey was a Black marine imprisoned, along with George Daniels, for his opposition to the Vietnam War...
R
Ronnie Hawkins
Released
Ronnie Hawkins received a jail sentence after a Los Angeles Panther-related arrest.
W
William Hayes
Released
William Hayes was a U.S. Army soldier and one of the "Presidio 27" — the stockade prisoners at the Presidio of...
C
Carl J. Heldring
Carl J. Heldring is individually named in a notice from seamen’s lawyer S. T. Hogevoll as arrested while a str...
H
Harold Hendricks
Released
Harold Hendricks was one of the Los Angeles unemployed workers imprisoned after the June 1934 campaign for bet...
E
E. F. Henry
Released
Corporal E. F. Henry, 20, of Ivanhoe, North Carolina, was one of the Camp Pendleton 14, Black Marines arrested...
G
G. C. Henry
Released
G. C. Henry was listed in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutions...
P
Peter Heppner
Released
Peter Heppner was a Mennonite conscientious objector from California imprisoned during World War I. Court-mart...
F
Frank Hermandez
Frank Hermandez was a one-armed worker described as an interpreter and director of the new Mexican labor union...
O
Oliver Edu Solares Herrera
Released
Oliver Edu Solares Herrera, 24, was one of the Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights defendants charged after green handpr...
C
Carl Herreshoff
Carl Herreshoff was an American from San Diego, California. A Geneva dispatch dated November 14, 1932 in the n...
H
Herron (Stockton relief protest)
Herron was arrested with Ray Gogan on a vagrancy accusation after a Stockton Unemployed Council relief delegat...
J
John E. Hester
John E. Hester was a Lowndale labor activist beaten and arrested when the Los Angeles red squad attacked a wor...
J
Jim Higgs
Released
Jim Higgs was an anti-nuclear protester who took part in the Choose Life witness at Livermore Laboratory. On D...
W
Walter Hines
The July 16 Western Worker’s July 4 San Diego dispatch names Walter Hines among arrested audience members afte...
B
Barbara Hirshkowitz
Barbara Hirshkowitz was jailed December 10–14, 1982 after an anti-nuclear blockade at Mather Air Force Base.
J
John Hix
John Hix was individually named among the labor and political prisoners actually confined at Folsom Prison at...

Institutions in California

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

San Quentin State PrisonSan Quentin, California
171 cases
Federal Bureau of Prisons
60 cases
Sharp Park Detention CampSharp Park, California
33 cases
Presidio StockadeSan Francisco, California
27 cases
Los Angeles County JailLos Angeles, California
26 cases
Folsom State PrisonFolsom, California
22 cases
San Quentin Rehabilitation CenterSan Quentin, California
16 cases
Metropolitan Detention Center, Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
14 cases