First set of Palmer Raids began - November 7, 1919

On this day in 1919, the Palmer Raids - which targeted radicals, communists, and anarchists in the U.S. - began.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey y'all, I'm Eves and you're listening to
This Day in History Class, a podcast for people interested
in the big and small moments in history. Today is
November seven, nineteen. The day was November seven, nineteen nineteen.

(00:27):
US federal agents and local police conducted rates across the
United States that targeted radical leftists, communists, and anarchists. The
Palmer Raids, as they are known, took place during the
Red Scare that sprang up after the Russian Revolution in
World War One. The raids led to the arrest of
thousands of people, but many people, including the Assistant Secretary

(00:50):
of Labor, objected to the raids. During World War One,
anti immigrant sentiment was fueled by patriotism by immigrants, actual
political views, and by imagined fear surrounding their political loyalties.
After the Russian Revolution of nineteen seventeen, many Americans feared
communist revolutionaries would try to take over the United States.

(01:12):
Many Southern and Eastern Europeans were migrating to the United States,
and there was a lot of labor unrest, stoking US
paranoia of communist threats. The Espionage Act of nineteen seventeen
and the Sedition Act of nineteen eighteen, which was actually
just amendments to the Espionage Act, criminalized different forms of speech,
including disloyal or abusive language about the form of government

(01:35):
of the United States. Many suspected radicals were prosecuted under
these acts. In April and June of nineteen nineteen, anarchists
attempted to carry out a male bomb plot that targeted
prominent politicians and businessmen, setting off a wave of arrests
and sensational stories in the press. One of the people
targeted by the bombings was Attorney General Alexander Palmer, who

(01:58):
had a bomb explode in front of his house, which
was largely destroyed in the blast. After the bombings, Palmer
announced in a statement that the attacks would quote only
increase and extend the activities of our crime detecting forces.
Palmer created the General Intelligence Unit in the Department of Justice,
and he recruited Jaegger Hoover, who worked at the Justice Department,

(02:20):
to be his special assistant in chief of the unit.
Hoover reported that radicals were an issue that needed to
be handled with urgency, and Palmer noted the threats of anarchists, Bolsheviks,
and black people who were deemed radicals. Palmer and Hoover
orchestrated raids and mass arrests under the Sedition and Espionage Acts.
The US government's Commissioner of Immigration signed the warrants for

(02:42):
the raids. The raids began on November seven, the second
anniversary of the October Revolution and Bolshevik victory in Russia.
People who were suspected of being radicals were arrested, even
if they had not committed any relevant political acts. Authorities
arrested many people without the proper warrants. Raids took place

(03:03):
in cities across the US, including at the Union of
Russian Workers headquarters in New York. Notable anarchists like Emma
Goldman and Alexander Berkman were arrested. The raids continued into December,
and another round of raids began in January of nineteen twenty.
Most of the people arrested were released, but many had

(03:23):
also been detained without trial for an extended time and
weren't told their charges. In December of nineteen nineteen, two
hundred and forty nine accused radicals were deported on a
ship called the Buford In the end, around three thousand
people were detained and even more arrested, and hundreds of
foreign citizens were deported. While many people supported the raids

(03:44):
at first, public opinions shifted in response to the violations
of civil liberties, and the Labor Department canceled many of
the warrants used in the raids. As people questioned the
constitutionality of the operation, and the National Civil Liberties Bureau
challenged this edition Act, Palmer's actions support for the raids crumpled.
Palmer attempted to trump up fear in the US by

(04:06):
saying there would be a communist uprising on Mayday, nineteen,
but when the attack did not happen, Palmer's credibility declined
even more. Later that month, the American Civil Liberties Union
issued a report documenting the government's illegal activities during the raids.
Palmer ran for president in nineteen twenty, but lost the

(04:27):
Democratic nomination. Fear of a communist threat and anti immigrant
sentiments would remain part of the national consciousness for years
after the Palmer Raids. I'm Eve Deco, and hopefully you
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
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