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Virginia

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 Virginia.

211Documented
11In custody
161Released
4Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Virginia

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

1800s 41 2020s 35 1970s 27 1930s 20 2010s 18 2000s 18

Documented cases

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

Jean Marshall Clarke
Released
Jean Marshall Clarke was the Virginia coordinator of the National Organization for Women. Capitol police arres...
George Crawford (Virginia, 1934)
George Crawford was a Black defendant whom Harry Haywood’s commentary in the Daily Worker of July 10, 1934, pa...
James Joseph Dresnok
In Exile
James Joseph Dresnok was a U.S. Army private first class stationed on the Korean demilitarized zone. Facing mi...
Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards
Released
Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards is a former senior adviser at the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enfor...
Enten Eller
Released
Son of Church of the Brethren minister Rev. Vernard Eller. An honors physics-and-math major at church-affiliat...
Charles James Faulkner
Released
Charles James Faulkner was a former U.S. congressman from Virginia and U.S. minister to France. On returning f...
Henry Kyle Frese
Released
U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency counterterrorism analyst convicted under the Espionage Act for leaking classi...
Stephan Graham
Released
Stephan Graham was a local secretary of the International Labor Defense. Stephan Graham was arrested at Portsm...
Stephen Graham
Released
Stephen Graham, also known as Stephan Graham and Stephen Grahovac, was a Communist organizer from a Croatian f...
Francis DeSales Grayson
Released
Francis DeSales Grayson was one of the Martinsville Seven — seven Black Virginia men arrested January 1949 for...
Leonard Grimes
Released
Leonard Grimes was a free-born African American Underground Railroad activist in Washington, DC. He served two...
Gokhan Gun
Released
Gokhan Gun, a civilian Defense Department engineer with a top-secret clearance, was arrested on August 9, 2024...
Howard Hairston
Released
Howard Hairston was one of the "Martinsville Seven," seven Black men convicted by all-white juries of the rape...
James Luther Hairston
Released
James Luther Hairston was one of the Martinsville Seven — seven Black Virginia men arrested January 1949 for t...
Daniel Hale
Released
Daniel Hale is a former U.S. Air Force intelligence analyst and former contractor at the National Geospatial-I...
Joe Henry Hampton
Released
Joe Henry Hampton was one of the Martinsville Seven — seven Black Virginia men arrested January 1949 for the a...
Eric Hancock
Released
Eric Hancock is an antifascist prisoner serving a year’s sentence for unlawful wounding after a confrontation...
Laurence Henry
Released
Laurence Henry founded the Nonviolent Action Group at Howard University. Arlington police arrested him and Dio...
Naomi Destiny Isaac
Released
Naomi “Nomi” Isaac is a Richmond organizer with the Virginia Student Power Network and Black Alliance for Peac...
Frank Hairston Jr.
Released
Frank Hairston Jr. was one of the Martinsville Seven — seven Black Virginia men arrested January 1949 for the...
Stephen Kim
Released
Stephen Jin-Woo Kim is a Korean-American nuclear-proliferation expert and former contractor at the U.S. State...
O. A. Kinsolving
Released
O. A. Kinsolving was from Loudoun County, Virginia. O. A. Kinsolving was an Episcopal minister (Gen. Rogers's...
John Kiriakou
Released
John Kiriakou was a CIA case officer, and senior counterterrorism investigator for the Senate Foreign Relation...
John Letcher
Released
John Letcher was a Virginia lawyer, newspaper editor, congressman, and the state’s governor during the first t...

Institutions in Virginia

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

Castle ThunderRichmond, Virginia
22 cases
Castle GodwinRichmond, Virginia
21 cases
Occoquan Workhouse
15 cases
Virginia State PenitentiaryRichmond, Virginia
12 cases
Occoquan Workhouse / DC JailLorton, Virginia
11 cases
Charles Town Jail (Jefferson County)Charles Town, Virginia
7 cases
FCI PetersburgHopewell, Virginia
6 cases
Federal Reformatory, PetersburgPetersburg, Virginia
3 cases