When?

Here are the major events of the The Red Scare/ Palmer Raids:    

• In the summer of 1919, on June 2, bombs erupted in eight cities on the door steps of high ranking government officials, including Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, whose house was partially destroyed.
• Hand made bombs were found wrapped and addressed to prominent businessmen, such as J.P Morgan and John D. Rockefeller
• With governmental approval, Palmer initiated a series of raids against radicals and leftist that were done without warnings or warrants.
• Palmer got this approval by making a speech before the Senate convincing them that Communists were planning to overthrow the government.
• They awarded him $500, 000 to help his cause.
• He appointed J. Edgar Hoover the head of the General Intelligence Committee and used the wartime Sedition Act of 1918 and the Espionage Act of 1917 to legally justify the prosecution of the so called radicals.
• He also made use of the Deportation Act of 1918, which allowed for the deportation of anarchists.
• Many aliens were deported on the stemship "Buford" to Russia from Ellis Island ( including the famous anarchist, Emma Goldman).
• Most people were released after confusing days in custory
• The Red Scare came to a climax when on January 2, 1920, Justice Department agents arrested 3,000 "communists, anarchists, and aliens".  (In actuality, most were indeed American Citizens and had broken no laws)
• They were allowed no contact with lawyers or family and were held without bail. (This violated their constitutional rights)
• Others were arrest just for knowing one of the accused, with brought the arrests to 7,000.
• Out of the 7,000, 566 were deported or imprisoned.
• Even Jane Addams, founder of Hull House and a great advocate for social welfare was being suspected by Palmer because she had voiced her pacifist views during World War I.
• When even conservative Americans began to be questioned and attacked, support for the Red Scare died out, and the whole ordeal dissipated.
• Secretary of Labor, Louis Post, starte reviewing all of Palmer's cases and found them to be without justification.
• Palmer was found to be in violation of Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, unlawful diversion/use of government funds and was fined $100,000,000 in reparations.   

Palmer then admitted the the Palmer Raids, "were directed against the trade unions and labor movements".       

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Last update: March 20, 2000