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Pennsylvania

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 Pennsylvania.

836Documented
12In custody
544Released
4Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Pennsylvania

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

1930s 257 1700s 79 1910s 76 1920s 72 1960s 69 1800s 59

Documented cases

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

S
Sam Jessop (Turtle Creek unemployed organizer)
PDF page 4 identifies the Turtle Creek Unemployed Councils organizer and says he was released from Blawnox aft...
R
Rene Johnson (Philadelphia Black Panther)
Rene Johnson was a Philadelphia Black Panther Party acting officer of the day, arrested at gunpoint at about10...
T
T. Johnson (McKeesport relief organizer)
T. Johnson was an Unemployed Council leader in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, reported arrested in a June 20, 1934...
T
Tom Johnson (McKeesport relief protest, 1934)
Tom Johnson was reported jailed under $1,000 bail on inciting-to-riot, obstructing-legal-process and intimidat...
W
William Johnson
Released
William Johnson was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marche...
E
Edgar Jones
Edgar Jones was among the coal-strike defendants named in the July 24 Pittsburgh bulletin published in the Dai...
M
M. J. Jones
Released
Marshall names M. J. Jones among the four editors and proprietors of Harrisburg's Patriot and Union arrested a...
O
Owen Jones Jr.
Released
Owen Jones Jr. was a Philadelphia Quaker merchant and son of Owen Jones, the last provincial treasurer of Penn...
W
Walter Vann Jones
Released
Walter Vann Jones appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’ 1968 lists of imprisoned draft...
W
Wasyl Jowchalk
Released
Wasyl Jowchalk was listed in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutio...
A
Alvin Joyner
Alvin Joyner was a member of the Philadelphia Black liberation group known as the Revolutionaries and a defend...
P
Pete Jugrine
Released
Pete Jugrine was a Black miner serving a year at the Blawnox Workhouse, one of the National Miners' Union stri...
T
Theodore Karnesky
Theodore Karnesky was arrested while picketing during the Russellton coal strike. The May 11, 1928 newspaper d...
J
Joe Kaross
JoeKaross was SoniaKaross’s husband. PatriciaHickerson’s retrospective biography in Laisve,March30,1984 says t...
J
John Katkus
Released
John Katkus was listed in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutions...
I
Irving Katz
Released
Irvin Katz was prosecuted as part of the Philadelphia Nine Smith Act case, in which federal authorities sought...
S
Stanley Kawastwich
Stanley Kawastwich was a National Miners Union member arrested at South Wilkes-Barre Colliery for distributing...
F
Fred Kearns
Fred Kearns was a secretary of the Hill Section Unemployed Council in Pittsburgh. Carl Price’s account in the...
T
Thomas Keenan (LOVE Park 2007)
Released
Thomas Keenan, 24, ARA/Antifa member, arrested July 23, 2007 near LOVE Park in Philadelphia during a counter-p...
J
J. S. Keller
Marshall names J. S. Keller in his list of people arrested and confined from Clearfield County, Pennsylvania....
J
Jacob Keller
Marshall names Jacob Keller in his list of people arrested and confined from Clearfield County, Pennsylvania....
P
Peter Keller
Marshall names Peter Keller in his list of people arrested and confined from Clearfield County, Pennsylvania....
A
Arthur Kelly
Arthur Kelly was a cigar-strike protester arrested after the July 26, 1934 demonstration outside the T. E. Bro...
D
Dan Kelly
Released
Dan Kelly was a Catholic Worker associate editor who resisted the Vietnam War draft. Jack Cook reported that h...

Institutions in Pennsylvania

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

Fort MifflinPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
48 cases
Allegheny County WorkhouseBlawnox, Pennsylvania
34 cases
Walnut Street JailPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
20 cases
Philadelphia GaolPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
18 cases
United States Penitentiary, LewisburgLewisburg, Pennsylvania
14 cases
Butler County PrisonButler, Pennsylvania
11 cases
FCI AllenwoodWhite Deer, Pennsylvania
10 cases
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas / SCI Pennsylvania state prisonsPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
9 cases