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Michigan

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 Michigan.

334Documented
1In custody
185Released
8Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Michigan

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

1930s 74 1980s 51 1910s 45 1920s 33 1950s 22 2020s 21

Documented cases

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

J
John Anderson (Wisconsin congressional candidate, 1930)
The August 7 report describes their arrest at the Ironwood August First meeting: Anderson was pulled down whil...
T
T. Andonoff
Released
T. Andonoff was organizer of the International Labor Defense. The Daily Worker of July12,1930 names this organ...
A
Alonzo Ansell
Alonzo Ansell was arrested in Dearborn, Michigan, on Friday, May 15, 1936 while distributing leaflets announci...
T
Todor Antonoff
Released
Todor Antonoff, also known as Tom Antonoff, was a Bulgarian-born Auto Workers Union organizer in the Detroit-P...
D
Daniel Atcheff
Daniel Atcheff was arrested with a fellow worker in Flint, Michigan, on September 14, 1919 after a restaurant...
I
Ignaty Badyak
Ignaty Badyak was arrested at the House of Masses in Detroit, according to the 1920 congressional deportation-...
N
Nydia Barken
Nydia Barken was arrested at strike picketing in Detroit on the morning of January 24, 1933. The January 25 Da...
B
Benjamin Bavley
Released
Benjamin Bavley was one of seven Detroit John Reed Club delegates arrested Saturday June 23, 1934 while enteri...
B
Bess Bavley
Released
Bess Bavley was one of seven Detroit John Reed Club delegates arrested Saturday June 23, 1934 while entering t...
K
Ken Berger
Ken Berger was individually named in the Good Friday April 20, 1984 blood-and-cross protest at K. I. Sawyer Ai...
M
Mohammad Bilal
Mohammad Bilal was named among the Portland defendants in John S. Pistole’s April 14, 2004 FBI statement. The...
A
Alfred Bissell
Alfred Bissell was a young unemployed worker who opened the February 25, 1931 relief demonstration at Grand Ra...
R
Rutha Blackburn
Released
Rutha Blackburn was a Fugitive enslaved person arrested in Detroit on June 14, 1833 under the Fugitive Slave A...
T
Thornton Blackburn
Released
Thornton Blackburn was a Fugitive enslaved person arrested in Detroit on June 14, 1833 under the Fugitive Slav...
L
Ludwig Boltz
The Detroit report individually names MichiganSocialist managing-board member LudwigBoltz as arrested in the a...
A
Antonio Boni
Abner Green’s October 1936 account identifies Tony (Antonio) Boni as arrested and searched by Detroit police i...
M
Milton V. Breitmeyer
The Detroit report says Breitmeyer was one of six arrested June11,1917. Five registered and were released, but...
H
Henry Bresseau
The September 26 dispatch reports their arrest Saturday night, September 24, 1932 at a Communist election rall...
D
Darwin Lance Brown
Released
Detroit man convicted of first-degree murder in 1966 at age 19 and sentenced to life; The Black Panther Vol. 1...
H
Hayward Brown
Released
Detroit Black youth who, with two friends, fought Detroit's notorious STRESS police unit; captured after a mas...
M
Monroe Brown
Monroe Brown was a Black Detroit worker whom labor attorney Maurice Sugar helped obtain a new trial and acquit...
S
Stella Brown
Released
Stella (Stefana) Brown was a Detroit grandmother, brought from Poland at age two and naturalized in 1946, sent...
J
John Bunyk
John Bunyk was arrested in the Grand Rapids Communist Party investigation described across printed pages 54-55...
E
E. F. Burman
Released
E. F. Burman was a Communist convicted under Michigan's criminal-syndicalism ("red flag") law and sentenced to...

Institutions in Michigan

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

Federal Correctional Institution, MilanMilan, Michigan
6 cases
FCI MilanMilan, Michigan
3 cases
Bay County JailBay City, Michigan
3 cases
Michigan State Prison (Jackson)
3 cases
Wayne County Jail
3 cases
State Prison of Southern MichiganJackson, Michigan
2 cases
Marquette State PrisonMarquette, Michigan
2 cases
Detroit RRMMilan, Michigan
1 case