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Illinois

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 Illinois.

326Documented
4In custody
302Released

Eras of repression in Illinois

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

1910s 66 1920s 38 1960s 37 1970s 30 1980s 25 1930s 22

Documented cases

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

Minnie Seidel
Released
Minnie Seidel was a Chicago garment-strike picket associated with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ U...
Sebastian Senakiewicz
Released
Sebastian Senakiewicz — anti-NATO summit arrestee, Chicago, May 2012. Polish national charged under Illinois t...
Ignatz Simich
Released
Ignatz Simich was one of the eight miners convicted in March 1926 in the "Zeigler frame-up" — the prosecution...
Martin Simich
Released
Martin Simich was one of the eight Zeigler, Illinois miners convicted in March 1926 in the "Zeigler frame-up"...
Dan Slinger
Released
Dan Slinger was a militant National Miners' Union miner of Eldorado, Illinois during the Illinois coal strike...
August Spies
August Spies was a German-born anarchist labor organizer and editor of the Chicago Arbeiter-Zeitung, the leadi...
Joffre Stewart
Released
Joffre Stewart was a Chicago-based African-American pacifist, poet, and anti-conscription activist who refused...
Alex Stuck
Released
One of five antifascists arrested fleeing the May 19, 2012 raid on a white nationalist "Economic Summit" at th...
Cody Sutherlin
Released
One of five antifascists arrested fleeing the May 19, 2012 raid on a white nationalist "Economic Summit" at th...
Dylan Sutherlin
Released
Brother of co-defendant Cody Sutherlin. Arrested fleeing the May 19, 2012 militant antifascist attack on a whi...
William Tanner
Released
William Tanner, from Chicago, Illinois, was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to five year...
Alejandrina Torres
Released
Alejandrina Torres was known as a community leader and educator associated with Puerto Rican community institu...
Carlos Alberto Torres
Released
Carlos Alberto Torres is a Puerto Rican nationalist linked to the FALN era of clandestine independence activit...
Enrico Travaglio
Released
Enrico Travaglio (called Henry Travaglio in English-language newspapers) worked as a printer or typesetter for...
Irwin St. John Tucker
Released
Irwin St. John Tucker Born in Mobile, Alabama; Episcopal priest (ordained 1913, General Theological Seminary),...
John Tucker
Released
Arrested with three co-defendants while fleeing the May 19, 2012 militant antifascist attack on a white nation...
Brian Vaillancourt
Released
Brian is an animal advocate arrested on February 9, 2013 in Chicago for an alleged attempted arson at a McDona...
Diego Vargas
Released
Diego Vargas, of Aurora, Illinois, was federally prosecuted for actions on two consecutive nights of the 2020...
George Voyzey
Released
George Voyzey was the Illinois state president of the National Miners' Union, jailed under numerous charges an...
Lee Weiner
Released
Lee Weiner was a sociology graduate student at Northwestern University and one of the two Chicago Eight defend...
Donna Willmott
Released
Donna Jean Willmott is most often documented as a long-term fugitive associated by federal authorities with Pu...
Robert Hugh Wilson
Released
Robert Hugh Wilson ("Standing Deer") was an enrolled Oneida from the Oneida Nations of Wisconsin and an active...
A
Anthony J. Adams
Released
Anthony J. Adams was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Illinois imprisoned during World War I....
S
Spartacio Alo
Released
Spartacio Alo, a lodge president in the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, was among the strikers arrested in...

Institutions in Illinois

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

Cook County JailChicago, Illinois
34 cases
MCC ChicagoChicago , Illinois
12 cases
Southern Illinois Penitentiary, ChesterChester, Illinois
7 cases
FCI Pekin Satellite CampPekin, Illinois
5 cases
USP MarionMarion, Illinois
5 cases
Woodstock Jail (McHenry County)
5 cases
FCI PekinPekin, Illinois
4 cases
Stateville Correctional CenterCrest Hill, Illinois
4 cases