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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.

A
Anna Lynn
Anna Lynn was a young member of the Young Communist League in Philadelphia. The Daily Worker of April 17, 1931...
V
Violet Lynn
Released
Violet Lynn was arrested on May 3, 1932, after speaking at a strike meeting in Manayunk, Philadelphia. She and...
T
Thomas C. MacDowell
Released
Marshall names Thomas C. MacDowell among the four editors and proprietors of Harrisburg's Patriot and Union ar...
J
James MacNabb
Released
James MacNabb appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’1969 current-prisoner lists of draf...
W
Will MacQueen
Released
Will MacQueen was a Black miner serving a year at the Blawnox Workhouse, one of the National Miners' Union str...
A
Andrew Magers
Released
White anti-imperialist activist imprisoned at FCI Lewisburg in the 1980s on charges related to anti-imperialis...
W
Wilbur Maheney
Released
Wilbur Maheney was a Philadelphian who admitted past Communist Party membership but refused to name others bef...
W
W. Makedes (McKeesport relief organizer)
W. Makedes was an Unemployed Council leader in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, reported arrested in a June 20, 1934...
P
Patrick Mangan
Patrick Mangan of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, was identified as a militant leader in the Glen Alden coal strike in...
D
Dominic Mangini
Dominic Mangini was one of the ten Cheswick defendants individually named in Vern Smith’s retrospective articl...
P
Pete Mangini
Pete Mangini was one of the ten Cheswick defendants individually named in Vern Smith’s retrospective article i...
J
Joe Mankin
Joe Mankin was a Pittsburgh unemployment organizer and Daily Worker representative. The April 14, 1931 issue r...
M
Mike Marakowich
Mike Marakowich was one of the ten Cheswick defendants individually named in Vern Smith’s retrospective articl...
T
Tom Marsden
Released
Tom Marsden was listed among imprisoned draft and conscientious resisters in contemporary CCCO reports from 19...
N
Nathaniel Martin
Released
Nathaniel Martin was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and march...
R
Robert Martin
Released
Robert Martin was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marched...
B
Beatrice Mash
Beatrice Mash was one of six anti-fascist pickets jailed after a Free Thaelmann demonstration before the Germa...
F
Frank Maskaluskas
Frank Maskaluskas was one of the ten Cheswick defendants individually named in Vern Smith’s retrospective arti...
T
Thomas Mattox
Released
Thomas Mattox was a seventeen-year-old Black youth held in Philadelphia in 1943 as a fugitive wanted in Georgi...
G
George Matty
George Matty was individually named by National Miners Union secretary-treasurer Pat Toohey in the December 13...
M
Mike Matty
Released
Mike Matty was a coal miner from Brownsville, Pennsylvania, jailed at the Allegheny County Workhouse at Blawno...
M
Meredith Mauk
Meredith Mauk was arrested in June 1934 during resistance to an eviction in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. The Da...
T
Thomas McComb
Released
Thomas McComb was one of twenty men arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and marched...
J
James McDonnell
Released
James McDonnell was convicted of the November 1863 murder of mine owner George K. Smith at Audenried and hange...

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