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Minnesota

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 Minnesota.

279Documented
9In custody
212Released
15Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Minnesota

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

2020s 52 1910s 52 1940s 44 1930s 32 1970s 23 2010s 19

Documented cases

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

M
Mohammed Hoque
Released
Mohammed Hoque was a Bangladeshi international student at Minnesota State University, Mankato when ICE arreste...
G
George Humon
George Humon was a labor educator and former editor of Industrialisti, the Finnish-language newspaper associat...
F
Floyd Hurley
Released
Floyd Hurley was a Minneapolis WPA striker imprisoned following the 1939 strike against changes to federal wor...
N
Norman Hurwitz
Norman Hurwitz was a leader in the Armour packing strike in SouthStPaul. The December22,1933 report says his f...
C
Carl H. Johnson
Released
Carl H. Johnson was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for...
G
Gunnard Johnson
Released
Gunnard Johnson was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for...
H
Hjalmaer Johnson
Released
Hjalmaer Johnson was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed fo...
J
James Johnson (Minneapolis anti-lynch case, 1933)
James Johnson was arrested with Wilber Hardiman in Minneapolis in June 1933 after the leader of a mob attempti...
O
Orval Jordet
Released
Orval Jordet was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for re...
M
Morris Kamman
Released
Morris Kamman was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for r...
S
Sanna Kannasto
Sanna Kannasto was a Finnish-origin labor speaker jailed after a May 10, 1925 speech at Hibbing, Minnesota. Th...
G
George Karemchuk
George Karemchuk was among unemployed workers arrested after the February 25, 1931 Minneapolis relief demonstr...
K
Karson (Ely Communist organizer, 1931)
Karson, identified only by surname as the Communist Party section organizer, was arrested during the Ely prote...
M
Morris Karson
Morris Karson was a leader in the Armour packing strike in SouthStPaul. The December22,1933 report says his fi...
T
Topias Kekkonen
Topias Kekkonen, also recorded as Tobias Kekkonen, edited Industrialisti, a Finnish-language newspaper support...
P
Paul Kettunen
Released
Paul Kettunen, whose full name was Pauli Olavi Kettunen, was a Finnish immigrant detained for deportation over...
K
Kiley (Minneapolis CWA defendant, 1934)
The May 8, 1934 Minneapolis report names Kiley among defendants sentenced for the April 6 CWA relief demonstra...
N
Nathan Junho Kim
Awaiting Trial
Nathan Junho Kim is one of the Minnesota 15, a group federally indicted in June 2026 over organizing and demon...
M
Minnie Kohn
Released
Minnie Kohn was a Minneapolis WPA sewing-project striker jailed after the 1939 strike. She was the only woman...
J
John Kos
Released
John Kos was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusi...
W
William Kunstler
Defense lawyer William Kunstler was jailed overnight during the Wounded Knee trial in late August 1974.
I
Irving Kurki
Released
Irving Kurki appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’ 1968 lists of imprisoned draft and...
A
Arvo Lapakko
Arvo Lapakko, nicknamed Little Bits, led a march toward the Ely jail to protest the arrest of speakers at a la...
E
Ernest T. Carl Laub
Released
Ernest T. Carl Laub was a conscientious objector from Minnesota imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...

Institutions in Minnesota

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

FCI SandstoneSandstone, Minnesota
21 cases
FCI WasecaWaseca, Minnesota
10 cases
Ramsey County District CourtSt. Paul, Minnesota
7 cases
U.S. District Court, District of MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota
5 cases
White Earth Tribal Court
3 cases
Ramsey County JailSt. Paul, Minnesota
2 cases
Hennepin County JailMinneapolis, Minnesota
1 case
FPC DuluthDuluth, Minnesota
1 case