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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.

260Documented
28In custody
161Released
4Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Texas

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

1910s 49 2020s 37 1970s 36 1980s 28 1960s 25 2000s 20

Documented cases

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

H
Henry G. Esau
Released
Henry G. Esau was a Mennonite conscientious objector from Texas imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed...
M
Marvin Fentis
Released
Marvin Fentis was a Black Texan who, The Black Panther reported, was already serving two life sentences for de...
F
Fishnolthtonz
Fishnolthtonz is individually named among the Apache prisoners under General D. S. Stanley’s charge at San Ant...
F
Fun
Fun is individually named among the Apache prisoners under General D. S. Stanley’s charge at San Antonio in hi...
D
David Garza (Houston 12 defendant)
The Black Panther identifies this person in its captioned Houston 12 photograph. The article links the defenda...
L
Lenell Geter
Lenell Geter was a Black engineer from Greenville, Texas, wrongfully convicted of armed robbery in 1982 and se...
T
Tiffani Shea Gish
Released
Tiffani Shea Gish, age 49, of Houston TX, called a federal judge in Florida three times in 2022 threatening to...
D
Delia Gonzalez
Released
A 39-year-old Chicana activist in Del Rio, Texas facing a 13-count federal indictment (up to 65 years) for all...
J
John Greenberg
Waco dentist Dr. John Greenberg is individually described by Harold Preece as first arrested three years befor...
W
William Grove
Released
William Grove was arrested in Dallas on February 25, 1931, when police attacked an unemployment demonstration....
R
Ricardo Aldape Guerra
Ricardo Aldape Guerra was a Mexican-born worker sentenced to death in the prosecution over the July 13, 1982 k...
D
David Haracz
Released
David Haracz appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’ 1968 military-prison lists of consc...
J
J. E. Harvey
Released
J. E. Harvey was a farmer from Tyler, Texas. J. E. Harvey served in Atlanta Penitentiary from September 20, 19...
V
Vida Henry
Released
Vida Henry was a nineteen-year veteran of the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment and a leader in Company I. Vida...
T
Thomas Hirschi
Released
Thomas Hirschi was one of the "Moody Park Three," members of People United to Fight Police Brutality charged w...
D
Dave L. Holas
Dave L. Holas was listed by Breakthrough in its Summer 1991 prisoner directory as a Gulf War military resister...
H
Henry Howe
Released
Second Lieutenant Henry H. Howe Jr. was a U.S. Army officer stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, and one of the fir...
G
George Hughes
George Hughes was held in a courthouse vault at Sherman, Texas when a mob burned the courthouse, took his body...
F
Frank Johnson
Released
Frank Johnson was a private of the 24th Infantry Regiment. Private of the 24th Infantry among the soldiers who...
G
George W. Johnson (Texas labor organizer)
George W. Johnson was described as a Texas poor-farmer and unemployed-workers leader and Communist candidate f...
O
Otis Johnson
Released
Prisoner sentenced to 17 years for allegedly stealing $17 and a TV set in Texas, listed by Amnesty Internation...
T
Thaddeus Juscak
Released
Thaddeus Juscak appears in the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors’1969 current-prisoner lists of dr...
H
Henry Kempt
The Wichita Falls report records Kempt’s February3,1919 guilty plea and one-year-one-day Leavenworth sentence...
K
Keyehtah
Keyehtah is individually identified as an enlisted Apache scout in General Stanley’s October 11, 1886 account...

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
14 cases
Tarrant County JailFort Worth, Texas
9 cases
Federal Correctional Institution, TexarkanaTexarkana, Texas
5 cases
Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville
5 cases
Texas State Penitentiary, HuntsvilleHuntsville, Texas
5 cases
Fort Sam HoustonSan Antonio, Texas
3 cases
Prairieland ICE Detention CenterAlvarado, Texas
2 cases
Harris County District CourtHouston, Texas
2 cases