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Texas

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 Texas.

161Documented
23In custody
104Released
3Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Texas

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

1910s 49 2020s 29 2000s 20 1970s 19 2010s 12 1930s 8

Documented cases

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

A
Alberto Aranda
Released
Alberto Aranda is a jailhouse lawyer and Chicano political prisoner currently imprisoned in the Texas. While o...
J
J. D. Arnold
Released
J. D. Arnold, identified in court records as John D. Arnold, was news editor of the Dallas Iconoclast. The Tex...
C
Charles W. Baltimore
Charles W. Baltimore Corporal of the 24th Infantry Regiment. Military policeman whose beating and arrest by Ho...
E
Earl Barlow
Earl Barlow was a Fort Worth, Texas Unemployed Council leader arrested on 31 August 1933 and, the ILD charged,...
F
Fred Bell
Released
Fred Bell was a Texas community organizer (associated with the Dallas chapter of SNCC) whom The Black Panther...
V
Vernon Benton
Released
Vernon Benton was a member of the Houston chapter of the Black Panther Party who, with fellow members James Aa...
G
Gerald Bernard Best
18-year-old wounded when Houston police riddled a car with bullets, then charged with five counts of attempted...
C
Cal Ray Biggins
Released
Cal Ray Biggins was an 18-year-old Black Dallas youth indicted by the Dallas County grand jury for the January...
W
William D. Boone
William D. Boone Pvt. William D. Boone of the 24th Infantry was sentenced to death in the second/third Houston...
W
William Brackenridge
William Brackenridge Private of the 24th Infantry Regiment. Pvt. William Brackenridge of the 24th Infantry was...
W
William Breckenridge
Private William Breckenridge was one of the thirteen soldiers of the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment hanged a...
W
Wagner Bridger
Released
Wagner Bridger was an Army doctor given an undesirable discharge after invoking the Fifth Amendment on a loyal...
I
Isabel Indigo Brooks
Released
Isabel Indigo Brooks participated in the December 2012 Keystone XL pipeline protest near Winona, Texas. The pr...
L
Larnon J. Brown
Larnon J. Brown Corporal of the 24th Infantry Regiment. Cpl. of the 24th Infantry among the 13 soldiers convic...
M
Mario Cantu
Released
Mario Cantú was a San Antonio restaurateur and Chicano-movement activist who became, by his account, the first...
R
Ramon Chacon
Chicano activist known for organizing for the rights of Mexican people in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, arrested o...
C
Christopher Clarich
Released
Christopher Clarich was president of the Shrimp Peelers Union of UCAPAWA, convicted and sentenced to twenty ye...
C
Charles Coder
Released
Charles Coder was a white co-leader of the Dallas unemployment movement in Dallas, Texas in 1931; after a demo...
G
Glen Collins
Glen Collins participated in the December 2012 Keystone XL pipeline protest near Winona, Texas. The protest le...
A
Alvah M. Davis
Released
Alvah M. Davis was a conscientious objector from Texas imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refu...
I
Ira B. Davis
Ira B. Davis Private of the 24th Infantry Regiment. Pvt. Ira B. Davis of the 24th Infantry was among the soldi...
L
Luther Leo Denton
Released
Luther Leo Denton was a Jehovah's Witnesses conscientious objector from Texas imprisoned during World War I. C...
J
James Divine
James Divine Private of the 24th Infantry Regiment. Pvt. James Divine was hanged with the 13 soldiers at Salad...
J
James Divins
Private James Divins was one of the thirteen soldiers of the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment hanged at Camp T...

Institutions in Texas

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

Fort Sam Houston Disciplinary BarracksSan Antonio, Texas
17 cases
Tarrant County JailFort Worth, Texas
10 cases
Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville
5 cases
Texas State Penitentiary, HuntsvilleHuntsville, Texas
5 cases
Federal Correctional Institution, TexarkanaTexarkana, Texas
4 cases
Fort Sam HoustonSan Antonio, Texas
4 cases
Prairieland ICE Detention CenterAlvarado, Texas
2 cases
Harris County District CourtHouston, Texas
2 cases