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New York

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 New York.

2,078Documented
40In custody
1,023Released
12Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in New York

Where New York’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

1930s 714 1940s 176 1970s 171 1920s 166 1910s 166 1950s 159

Documented cases

2,078 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

R
Richard Moses
Released
Richard Moses was a young pacifist arrested in Times Square carrying anti-war signs during New York City's Jul...
H
Harry Moskowitz
Harry Moskowitz, a former Gran Laundry Service employee, was jailed for contempt after breaching an injunction...
P
Petros Moutsos
Released
Petros Moutsos was a young Greek seaman and member of the Federation of Greek Maritime Unions (outlawed in Gre...
D
Deane Mowrer
Released
Deane Mowrer was an associate editor of the Catholic Worker, one of ten pacifists jailed in July 1957 for refu...
E
Eugene Moy
Released
Eugene Moy was the editor of the New York China Daily News, a Chinese-American paper sympathetic to the new Pe...
J
James Mu
The July 22 issue reports arrest at the Friday July 19, 1929 demonstration outside the Nanking consulate, 13 A...
P
Paul Mueller (Ellis Island deportee, 1933)
The June 5, 1933 issue prints an Ellis Island prisoners’ letter opposing deportation, individually signed by t...
J
John Mullally
Released
John Mullally was one of four Irish Workers’ Club members arrested and beaten by police on June 22, 1932, afte...
J
Jay Munane
Jay Munane was individually named among Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory protesters arrested August 6, 1985 and...
M
Munaradan
Munaradan, a boatswain’s mate aboard the Standard Oil tanker Comeric at Tenth Street, Long Island City, was in...
J
John Munch (Bickford picket, 1935)
John Munch was one of six pickets arrested September 12, 1935 outside Bickford’s restaurant, 215 West Forty-se...
A
Alfred J. Mungo
Released
Alfred J. Mungo was jailed for the March 1969 Stony Brook University library protest against university war re...
B
Barbara Murphy
Barbara Murphy was taken into police-station custody during a Harlem Communist election meeting in August 1932...
C
Chester F. Murphy
Chester F. Murphy was arrested at Lafayette Square in Buffalo on October 25, 1930 while distributing handbills...
E
Edward Murphy
Released
Edward Murphy was a Jesuit priest and NYC native, age 34 at indictment; entered the Society of Jesus in 1955,...
J
John Murphy
Released
John Murphy was a leader of the Unemployment Councils of the Lower Bronx. The Daily Worker of April 3, 1936 na...
G
George Murray (Intner mattress striker, 1936)
George Murray, a union mattress worker, was one of five defendants arrested in the William Intner Mattress Com...
Y
Yusuf A. Mussadiq
Released
Yusuf A. Mussadiq was one of the four young Sunni Muslim men known as the Williamsburg Four. On January 18, 19...
F
Franklin Myers
Franklin Myers is individually identified as an incarcerated Tombs representative. Right On! names the seven e...
P
Piratheepan Nadarajah
Released
Piratheepan Nadarajah conspired with an undercover FBI agent to purchase $1 million worth of weapons for the T...
O
Otto Nathan
Released
Dr. Otto Nathan was an economist and the executor of Albert Einstein's estate, cited for contempt of Congress...
G
George Neagu
Released
George Neagu was a Romanian immigrant arrested without a warrant and held for deportation in February 1936, ac...
L
Louis Nelson
Louis Nelson, a grocery clerk, was sentenced to ten days for picketing at 165th Street and Westchester Avenue,...
S
Sam Nelson
Named as Sam Nelson in the IWW’s partial Red Special deportation-detention roster. The report says the group l...

Institutions in New York

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

Ellis Island Immigration StationNew York, New York
215 cases
Fort LafayetteNew York, New York
202 cases
Manhattan House of Detention (the Tombs)New York, New York
21 cases
Attica Correctional FacilityAttica, New York
20 cases
Sing Sing Correctional FacilityOssining, New York
15 cases
Ellis IslandNew York, New York
15 cases
Metropolitan Correctional Center, New YorkNew York, New York
13 cases
Metropolitan Correctional CenterNew York, New York
10 cases