The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists and communists, and deport them from the United States. The raids particularly targeted Italian immigrants and Eastern European Jewish immigrants with alleged leftist ties, with particular focus on Italian anarchists and immigrant leftist labor activists. The raids and arrests occurred under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, with 6,000 people arrested across 36 cities. Though 556 foreign citizens were deported, including a number of prominent leftist leaders, Palmer's efforts were largely frustrated by officials at the U.S. Department of Labor, which had authority for deportations and objected to Palmer's methods.

The Palmer Raids occurred in the larger context of the First Red Scare, a period of fear of and reaction against communists in the U.S. in the years immediately following World War I and the Russian Revolution. There were strikes that garnered national attention, and prompted race riots in more than 30 cities, as well as two sets of bombings in April and June 1919, including one bomb mailed to Palmer's home.

Between November 1919 and January 2020, Palmer’s agents deported nearly 250 people, including notable anarchist Emma Goldman, and arrested nearly 10,000 people in seventy cities.

100 Years Ago, the First Red Scare Tried to Destroy the Left meow-anarchist

“For a World Without Oppressors:” U.S. Anarchism from the Palmer Raids to the Sixties - Andrew Cornell anarchy

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  • WhyEssEff [she/her]
    ·
    6 months ago

    geordi-no four hour video essay

    geordi-yes four hour video essay from hbomberguy

    • WhyEssEff [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      this mf is like one of three people that can genuinely get me invested into their 1/6th of a day timesink videos

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      By law video essays should be broken up in to chapters and each chapter has a 90s summary of the chapter at the start and a 5m re-cap and discussion period at the end so my ADHD ass actually has a chance of ever sitting through a whole video essay.