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The Palmer Raids
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Printed: October 7, 2012
AUTHOR
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C ONCEPT
Concept 1. The Palmer Raids
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The Palmer Raids
In 1917, a revolution toppled Russia’s Czar, and replaced him with a communist government. Also, immediately
after World War One, the country experienced high inflation, high unemployment, and a number of labor strikes.
Against this backdrop, the United States began arresting and deporting anyone suspected of “radical” thinking
(e.g., Communism, socialism, anarchism, pro-labor). These arrests became known as the “Palmer Raids” after
the Attorney General of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer.
The Case Against the “Reds” – A. Mitchell Palmer
Source: Excerpt from an essay written by A. Mitchell Palmer called “The Case Against the ’Reds,’” 1920.
Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American institution a year ago. It was eating
its way into the homes of the American workmen, its sharp tongues of revolutionary heat were licking the altars of
the churches, leaping into schools, crawling into the sacred corners of American homes, burning up the foundations
of society.
It has been impossible in so short a space to review the entire menace of the internal revolution in this country, but
this may serve to arouse the American citizen to its reality, its danger, and the great need of united effort to stamp it
out, under our feet, if needs be. It is being done. The Department of Justice will pursue the attack of these “Reds”
upon the Government of the United States with vigilance, and no alien, advocating the overthrow of existing law and
order in this country, shall escape arrest and prompt deportation.
My information showed that thousands of aliens supported communism in this country. Aliens who were making the
same glittering promises of lawlessness and criminal rule to Americans, that they had made to the Russian peasants.
The whole purpose of communism appears to be a mass organization of the criminals of the world to overthrow the
decencies of private life, to usurp property that they have not earned, to disrupt the present order of life. Communism
distorts our social law.
Vocuabulary
Aliens
Foreigners
Usurp
take over
Distort
Twist out of shape
Questions:
a. Sourcing: Who wrote this document? What is his perspective?
b. Sourcing: What do you predict he will say?
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c. Close reading: Palmer says, “Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American
institution a year ago.” What is he referring to? How do these words make the reader feel?
d. Close Reading: How does Palmer describe Communism? Why does he think it’s dangerous?
Deportation Statement – Emma Goldman
Source: Excerpt from the statement Emma Goldman gave at her deportation hearings. Goldman was an anarchist
and socialist who sympathized with the working poor. She was deported during the Palmer Raids.
Emma Goldman
New York, October 27, 1919
I wish to register my protest against these proceedings, whose very spirit is nothing less than a revival of the ancient
days of the Spanish Inquisition or Czarist Russia [when anyone who disagreed with the government was deported or
killed]. Today so-called aliens are deported. Tomorrow American citizens will be banished. Already some “patriots”
are suggesting that some native-born American citizens should be exiled.
The free expression of the hopes of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society. The object of the
deportations and of the anti-anarchist law is to stifle the voice of the people, to muzzle every aspiration of labor.
That is the real and terrible menace of these proceedings. Their goal is to exile and banish every one who does not
agree with the lies that our leaders of industry continue to spread.
Vocabulary
Banish=Exile=Deported=
Kicked out of the country
Aspiration
hope or ambition
Menace
danger, threat
Questions:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Sourcing: Who wrote this document? What is her perspective?
Sourcing: What do you predict she will say?
Close Reading: According to Goldman, what is the goal of the Palmer raids? What is wrong with them?
Contextualization: What else was going on at this time?
Section Questions:
a. Corroboration: Considering both of these documents, why did Palmer arrest thousands of people and deport
hundreds between 1919-1920?
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