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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey y'all, I'm Eves and you're listening to

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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class, a podcast for people interested

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Speaker 1: in the big and small moments in history. Today is

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Speaker 1: November seven, nineteen. The day was November seven, nineteen nineteen.

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Speaker 1: US federal agents and local police conducted rates across the

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Speaker 1: United States that targeted radical leftists, communists, and anarchists. The

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Speaker 1: Palmer Raids, as they are known, took place during the

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Speaker 1: Red Scare that sprang up after the Russian Revolution in

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Speaker 1: World War One. The raids led to the arrest of

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Speaker 1: thousands of people, but many people, including the Assistant Secretary

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Speaker 1: of Labor, objected to the raids. During World War One,

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Speaker 1: anti immigrant sentiment was fueled by patriotism by immigrants, actual

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Speaker 1: political views, and by imagined fear surrounding their political loyalties.

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Speaker 1: After the Russian Revolution of nineteen seventeen, many Americans feared

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Speaker 1: communist revolutionaries would try to take over the United States.

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Speaker 1: Many Southern and Eastern Europeans were migrating to the United States,

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Speaker 1: and there was a lot of labor unrest, stoking US

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Speaker 1: paranoia of communist threats. The Espionage Act of nineteen seventeen

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Speaker 1: and the Sedition Act of nineteen eighteen, which was actually

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Speaker 1: just amendments to the Espionage Act, criminalized different forms of speech,

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Speaker 1: including disloyal or abusive language about the form of government

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Speaker 1: of the United States. Many suspected radicals were prosecuted under

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Speaker 1: these acts. In April and June of nineteen nineteen, anarchists

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Speaker 1: attempted to carry out a male bomb plot that targeted

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Speaker 1: prominent politicians and businessmen, setting off a wave of arrests

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Speaker 1: and sensational stories in the press. One of the people

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Speaker 1: targeted by the bombings was Attorney General Alexander Palmer, who

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Speaker 1: had a bomb explode in front of his house, which

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Speaker 1: was largely destroyed in the blast. After the bombings, Palmer

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Speaker 1: announced in a statement that the attacks would quote only

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Speaker 1: increase and extend the activities of our crime detecting forces.

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Speaker 1: Palmer created the General Intelligence Unit in the Department of Justice,

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Speaker 1: and he recruited Jaegger Hoover, who worked at the Justice Department,

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Speaker 1: to be his special assistant in chief of the unit.

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Speaker 1: Hoover reported that radicals were an issue that needed to

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Speaker 1: be handled with urgency, and Palmer noted the threats of anarchists, Bolsheviks,

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Speaker 1: and black people who were deemed radicals. Palmer and Hoover

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Speaker 1: orchestrated raids and mass arrests under the Sedition and Espionage Acts.

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Speaker 1: The US government's Commissioner of Immigration signed the warrants for

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Speaker 1: the raids. The raids began on November seven, the second

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Speaker 1: anniversary of the October Revolution and Bolshevik victory in Russia.

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Speaker 1: People who were suspected of being radicals were arrested, even

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Speaker 1: if they had not committed any relevant political acts. Authorities

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Speaker 1: arrested many people without the proper warrants. Raids took place

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Speaker 1: in cities across the US, including at the Union of

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Speaker 1: Russian Workers headquarters in New York. Notable anarchists like Emma

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Speaker 1: Goldman and Alexander Berkman were arrested. The raids continued into December,

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Speaker 1: and another round of raids began in January of nineteen twenty.

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Speaker 1: Most of the people arrested were released, but many had

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Speaker 1: also been detained without trial for an extended time and

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Speaker 1: weren't told their charges. In December of nineteen nineteen, two

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Speaker 1: hundred and forty nine accused radicals were deported on a

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Speaker 1: ship called the Buford In the end, around three thousand

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Speaker 1: people were detained and even more arrested, and hundreds of

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Speaker 1: foreign citizens were deported. While many people supported the raids

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Speaker 1: at first, public opinions shifted in response to the violations

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Speaker 1: of civil liberties, and the Labor Department canceled many of

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Speaker 1: the warrants used in the raids. As people questioned the

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Speaker 1: constitutionality of the operation, and the National Civil Liberties Bureau

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Speaker 1: challenged this edition Act, Palmer's actions support for the raids crumpled.

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Speaker 1: Palmer attempted to trump up fear in the US by

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Speaker 1: saying there would be a communist uprising on Mayday, nineteen,

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Speaker 1: but when the attack did not happen, Palmer's credibility declined

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Speaker 1: even more. Later that month, the American Civil Liberties Union

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Speaker 1: issued a report documenting the government's illegal activities during the raids.

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Speaker 1: Palmer ran for president in nineteen twenty, but lost the

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Speaker 1: Democratic nomination. Fear of a communist threat and anti immigrant

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Speaker 1: sentiments would remain part of the national consciousness for years

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Speaker 1: after the Palmer Raids. I'm Eve Deco, and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Spend some of your daily social media time with us

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Speaker 1: at t D i D podcast. You can also shoot

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Speaker 1: us an email at this Day at I heart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. I truly hope you enjoyed today's show. We'll

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Speaker 1: be back tomorrow with another episode. For more podcasts from

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