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Iowa
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 Iowa.
76Documented
1In custody
49Released
Eras of repression in Iowa
Where Iowa’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1910s 20
1930s 14
1960s 11
1980s 6
2000s 5
1800s 5
Recent dashboard entries from Iowa
The newest published events and reporting located in Iowa, updated automatically from the live dashboard.
Arrest
‘I was wearing a sundress’: Cedar Rapids protester speaks out after viral arrest video
Protest
Hundreds rally at Central Park in Mason City for 'No Kings'
Protest
Iowa City Starbucks baristas join a nationwide unfair-labor strike
Protest
No Kings rally fills the Jackson County Courthouse lawn in rural Maquoketa
Protest
Des Moines students walk out over the ICE detention of their superintendent
Arrest
About 15 people charged with unlawful assembly and failure to disperse at Iowa City protests after ICE agents tackled and arrested a local grocery worker, Jorge Gonzalez Ochoa
Protest
Thousands line 8th Avenue for the Cedar Rapids No Kings protest
Documented cases
76 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
D
Dr. Walter A. Matthey
Released
Dr. Walter A. Matthey was a Davenport, Iowa physician. Dr. Walter A. Matthey helped arrange a July 25, 1917 me...
T
Terry McDonald
Terry McDonald was a 19-year-old Waterloo resident arrested in Black Hawk County on December 27, 1968 in the D...
I
Ira R. Meade
Released
Ira R. Meade represented the Communist Party’s Iowa section at a Des Moines WPA wage convention in December 19...
H
Henry H. Miller
Released
Henry H. Miller was a Mennonite conscientious objector from Iowa imprisoned during World War I. Court-martiale...
L
Lou Miller (Teamsters organizer, 1940)
Lou Miller was a member of Omaha Drivers Local 554 prosecuted with Jack Maloney and five other union organizer...
R
Richard Miller
Released
Richard Miller was engaged in work with the poor in Des Moines, Iowa, at the time of his solo Pantex action. H...
J
John Nordquist
Released
John Nordquist was a Des Moines relief-strike defendant. Pages 3 and 5 identify Nordquist as a rank-and-file s...
W
Walter W. Oliver
Released
Walter W. Oliver was a World War I conscientious objector who refused military service and was court-martialed...
J
James Patton (Des Moines, 1969)
James Patton was a Des Moines motorist whom the newspaper reports police jailed after a roadside confrontation...
W
William B. Payne
William B. Payne, a Black Sioux City, Iowa resident, witnessed the January 8, 1935 marriage of Doris Chase and...
J
Joe Phillips
The September 14, 1939 AP dispatch printed in the Daily Iowan September 15, page 6, names Joe Phillips, age 27...
P
Peter Rasmussen
Released
Peter Rasmussen was a conscientious objector from Iowa imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refu...
H
Halsey Reynolds
Halsey Reynolds was arrested during a June 28, 2008 Des Moines anti-torture vigil and held overnight. The Nucl...
M
Mary Ann Rhem
Mary Ann Rhem, later Sister Haadasha, was a Des Moines Black Panther organizer. A congressional investigator r...
J
Joseph Selzer
Released
Joseph Selzer was listed in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecution...
L
Laro Sorenson
Released
Laro Sorenson was a conscientious objector from Iowa imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusi...
B
Bernard Stenzel
Released
Bernard Stenzel was from Dubuque, Iowa. Bernard Stenzel began serving a prison sentence in Leavenworth Peniten...
L
Lee E. Swartzendruber
Released
Lee E. Swartzendruber was a Mennonite conscientious objector from Iowa imprisoned during World War I. Court-ma...
H
Henry Tonn
IWW organizer Henry Tonn was arrested in Marion,Iowa in November1919 after attempting to cash an IWW check. A...
N
Nicholaus Unger
William Douglas identifies this St. Paul Socialist draft resister among eight men confined at Camp Dodge in Fe...
K
Kellie Marshall Van Orden
Released
Kellie Marshall Van Orden, also reported as Kellie Marshall and Kellie Vanorden, was arrested with Victor Van...
V
Victor Van Orden
Released
Victor Van Orden, also reported as Victor Vanorden, was arrested with Kellie Marshall Van Orden in October 201...
J
John Volpe
Released
John Volpe was a father and member of the Davenport Catholic Worker in Iowa. Published Plowshares chronologies...
C
Carl W. Johnson
William Douglas identifies this St. Paul Socialist draft resister among eight men confined at Camp Dodge in Fe...
Institutions in Iowa
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Iowa that appear in the census’s case files.
Camp McClellanDavenport, Iowa
11 cases
Indianola jailIndianola, Iowa
6 cases
Polk County Jail (Iowa)Des Moines, Iowa
3 cases
Iowa Department of Corrections
2 cases
Keokuk military guardhouseKeokuk, Iowa
1 case