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Florida

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 Florida.

301Documented
18In custody
195Released
11Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Florida

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

1930s 70 2000s 46 2020s 35 1950s 30 1970s 28 2010s 26

Documented cases

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

Oren Miller
Released
Oren Miller was a Sumter County, Florida commissioner convicted of perjury in 2022. He was jailed from Novembe...
Carlos Naranjo
Released
Carlos Naranjo, 36 at the time and of Hollywood, Florida, was one of the "GEO9," a group of Fort Lauderdale Fo...
Mary A. Nolan
Released
Mary A. Nolan was a suffrage activist who joined the National Woman's Party “Silent Sentinels, ” the group tha...
Manuel Antonio Noriega
Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former military ruler of Panama, surrendered to United States forces on January 3,...
Ahmed Obafemi
Released
Ahmed Obafemi, formerly Jesse Dixon, was a New Afrikan organizer associated with the Republic of New Afrika, t...
Mathi Paguth
Released
Mathi Paguth, 40 at the time and of Lake Worth, Florida, was one of the "GEO9," a group of Fort Lauderdale Foo...
Richard Frank Parker
Released
Richard Frank Parker was a white Florida State University student and the only white participant in the Negro...
Carrie Patterson
Released
Carrie Patterson was a 20-year-old Florida A&M College student arrested with Wilhelmina Jakes on May 26, 1956...
Ana Isabel Pena Arevalo
Released
Ana Isabel Pena Arevalo, age 47, GAAR-cluster defendant. 31 months federal prison + 36 months supervised relea...
Stanley Grant Phanor
Released
Stanley Grant Phanor was a member of the Seas of David in Liberty City, Miami. He was convicted in the third L...
Freddie Pitts
Released
Black man who spent more than twelve years in Florida custody, including nine years on death row, convicted by...
Eugene Poulnot
Released
Eugene F. Poulnot was a Socialist Party member, chairman of the Florida Workers’ Alliance and a former preside...
Dane Powell
Released
Dane Powell was the only one of approximately 230 people charged in the federal Disrupt J20 prosecution to ser...
Molka Reich Bare
Released
Molka Reich Bare was cited for contempt in the 1954 Dade County 'subversive activities' probe for refusing, on...
Annarella Rivera
Released
Annarella Rivera is publicly documented through a federal prosecution involving attacks on pregnancy resource...
Gabriela Saldana
Awaiting Trial
Gabriela Saldana is a 23-year-old Florida International University capstone student who was arrested on April...
Mark Schmidter
Released
Mark Edward Schmidter is a Florida contractor, Vietnam veteran and jury-nullification activist associated with...
Gavin Seim
Released
Gavin David Seim is a photographer, former congressional candidate and self-described constitutionalist known...
Samuel Shepherd
Released
Samuel Shepherd was one of the Groveland Four. WWII Army veteran. Sentenced to death; killed by Sheriff Willis...
Joseph Shoemaker
Released
Joseph Shoemaker was born in Philadelphia on February 24, 1888. He worked as an actor in Brooklyn and later li...
Amber Smith-Stewart
Released
Amber Marie Smith-Stewart, 23, gender non-conforming, co-defendant of Caleb Freestone in the Janes Revenge Flo...
Dan B. Speed
Released
Dan B. Speed was the car-pool coordinator of the Inter-Civic Council in Tallahassee, arrested without warrant...
C. K. Steele
Released
The Rev. C. K. Steele was the Tallahassee NAACP president and leader of the Inter-Civic Council, which ran the...
Henry Marion Steele
Released
Henry Marion Steele participated in the 1960 Tallahassee campaign against segregated lunch counters and the en...

Institutions in Florida

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

FCI MariannaMarianna, Florida
8 cases
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of FloridaGainesville, Florida
8 cases
Florida State PrisonRaiford, Florida
8 cases
Raiford PenitentiaryRaiford, Florida
7 cases
Palm Beach County JailWest Palm Beach, Florida
7 cases
Miami FDCMiami, Florida
4 cases
Polk County JailBartow, Florida
4 cases
Fort TaylorKey West, Florida
4 cases