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Ohio

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 Ohio.

198Documented
3In custody
192Released

Eras of repression in Ohio

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

1910s 54 1950s 31 1800s 30 2020s 26 1930s 14 2010s 9

Documented cases

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

A
Andrew Remes
Released
Andrew Remes was one of the eight defendants indicted in the 1957 Cleveland Taft-Hartley 'conspiracy' case, a...
H
Harry B. Riffel
Released
Harry B. Riffel was a Mennonite Brethren conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. Court...
N
Natalia Robanhode Wyrd
Released
Natalia Gabriel Robanhode Wyrd is an Ohio resident and activist arrested in the early hours of July 4, 2022, d...
F
Frank Royer
Released
Frank Royer was a conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing...
N
Norton Anthony Russell
Released
Norton Anthony Russell was an engineer of Yellow Springs, Ohio, and one of eight people whose contempt-of-Cong...
C
Charles F. Schilling
Released
Charles F. Schilling was a conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for...
P
Peter Siepka
Released
Peter Siepka was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. Court-m...
O
Oscar Smilack
Released
Oscar Smilack was cited for contempt of an Ohio un-American activities committee in Columbus after refusing to...
E
Essex Smith
Released
Essex Smith was a Cleveland organizer associated with the local National Committee to Combat Fascism. On Septe...
D
DeCourcy Squire
Released
A Quaker antiwar activist and former Antioch College student from Cincinnati, known for a lengthy jail hunger...
M
Marshall Stanley
Released
Marshall Stanley was a conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for ref...
J
Joe Stern
Released
Joe Stern was cited for contempt of the Ohio un-American activities commission in 1954. He was fined $500 and...
S
Shorty Stevenson
Released
Shorty Stevenson was a Steel Workers' Organizing Committee leader arrested with roughly 200 strikers on June 2...
G
George S. Studebaker
Released
George S. Studebaker was a Church of the Brethren conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War...
L
Levi S. Swartzendruber
Released
Levi S. Swartzendruber was a Mennonite conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. Court-m...
I
Ignatz Szteklek
Released
Ignatz Szteklek was a conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refu...
A
Alfred Thomas
Released
Co-defendant of Fred Ahmed Evans in the Glenville Shootout — the July 23, 1968 armed confrontation in the Glen...
M
Mourad Topalian
Released
Mourad Topalian, 57, suspected leader of the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG), was sentenced...
M
Mary Topovich
Released
Mary Topovich of Cleveland was a foreign-born radical arrested for deportation in a November 1953 McCarran-Wal...
H
Harry E. Townsley
Released
Harry E. Townsley, a Socialist from Columbus, Ohio, was convicted for distributing literature against the draf...
D
David A. Troyer
Released
David A. Troyer was a Mennonite conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. Court-martiale...
C
Caroline F. Urie
Released
Caroline F. Urie was an elderly Quaker who for years refused to pay the war portion of her federal income tax....
D
Dominick Venturato
Released
Dominick Venturato was imprisoned at Ohio State Prison as a class-war prisoner supported by the International...
R
Rolla L. Wenger
Released
Rolla L. Wenger was a Church of the Brethren conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. C...

Institutions in Ohio

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

Summit County JailAkron, Ohio
12 cases
U.S. District Court, Northern District of OhioCleveland, Ohio
4 cases
Licking County JailNewark, Ohio
3 cases
Elkton FCILisbon, Ohio
2 cases
Ohio State PenitentiaryYoungstown, Ohio
2 cases
Mansfield Youth Center
2 cases
Canton WorkhouseCanton, Ohio
2 cases
Kemper Barracks military prisonCincinnati, Ohio
1 case