attorney general who launched a series of raids for communist

by Crystel Kuhlman 6 min read

The raids and arrests occurred under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, with 3,000 arrested.

Why did Attorney General A Mitchell Palmer launch a series of raids?

Aug 28, 2014 · A. Mitchell Palmer was the United States Attorney General who led raids on suspected communists. He was Attorney General from 1919 to 1921.

Who was involved in the Palmer Raids of 1919?

Jan 30, 2009 · Who was the US attorney general who led investigations on suspected communists from 1919 to 1921? A. Mitchell Palmer was the United States Attorney General who led raids on suspected communists.

Who led the Red Scare raids of the 1920s?

Aug 28, 2014 · A. Mitchell Palmer was the U.S. Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson who launched a series of raids to arrest and deport radical leftists and anarchists. These were known as the Palmer...

How did Coolidge and Palmer respond to the Boston Police Strike?

A. Mitchell Palmer launched a series of raids targeting suspected communist He believed that a Communist revolution was approaching in the United States, and he needed a theme on which to compete for the 1920 Democratic presidential nomination.

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Who was the attorney general that conducted raids against communism?

Attorney General Mitchell PalmerThe Constitution faced a major test on this day in 1920 when raids ordered by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer saw thousands of people detained without warrants merely upon general suspicion. This occurred during the “Red Scare” of the 1920s, a period of anti-Communist fervor in the United States.Jan 2, 2022

Why did attorney general Palmer launch a series of raids against suspected communists?

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer launch a series of raids against suspected Communists? He believed that a Communist revolution was imminent in the United States, and he needed an issue on which to campaign for the 1920 Democratic presidential nomination.

Who was Woodrow Wilson attorney general?

Alexander Mitchell Palmer (May 4, 1872 – May 11, 1936), was an American attorney and politician who served as the 50th United States attorney general from 1919 to 1921....A. Mitchell PalmerIn office March 5, 1919 – March 4, 1921PresidentWoodrow WilsonPreceded byThomas Watt GregorySucceeded byHarry Daugherty15 more rows

What was the reason for the Palmer Raids in late 1919 and early 1920?

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.

What were Palmer Raids quizlet?

The Palmer Raids were a series of government raids on suspected radicals in the U.S. led by the U.S. Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer. The Palmer Raids were highly unsuccessful in finding radical communists. Palmer believed that on May 1, 1920 would be the day of communist rioting.

Who was in President Wilson's Cabinet?

Woodrow Wilson - AdministrationFirst LadyEdith WilsonSecretary of the TreasuryWilliam G. McAdoo (1913–1918)Secretary of the TreasuryCarter Glass (1918–1920)Secretary of the TreasuryDavid Franklin Houston (1920–1921)Secretary of LaborWilliam B. Wilson (1913–1921)18 more rows

Who was a Mitchell Palmer What was his role in the story of the first communist scare?

Alexander Mitchell Palmer (1872–1936), a lawyer, politician, and attorney general of the United States after World War I, is remembered for directing the notorious “Palmer raids,” a series of mass roundups and arrests by federal agents of radicals and political dissenters suspected of subversion.

What did Mitchell Palmer believe in?

A devout Quaker from his youth, Palmer—later nicknamed the “Fighting Quaker”—was educated at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

Who organized the next raids?

As Attorney General Palmer struggled with exhaustion and devoted all his energies to the United Mine Workers coal strike in November and December 1919, Hoover organized the next raids. He successfully persuaded the Department of Labor to ease its insistence on promptly alerting those arrested of their right to an attorney. Instead, Labor issued instructions that its representatives could wait until after the case against the defendant was established, "in order to protect government interests." Less openly, Hoover decided to interpret Labor's agreement to act against the Communist Party to include a different organization, the Communist Labor Party. Finally, despite the fact that Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson insisted that more than membership in an organization was required for a warrant, Hoover worked with more compliant Labor officials and overwhelmed Labor staff to get the warrants he wanted. Justice Department officials, including Palmer and Hoover , later claimed ignorance of such details.

What was the purpose of the Palmer Raids?

The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 during the First Red Scare by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected leftists, mostly Italian immigrants and Eastern European immigrants and especially anarchists ...

How many people were arrested in the Palmer raids?

The raids and arrests occurred under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, with 3,000 arrested. 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 ...

How many cities were bombed in 1919?

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.

What was the cause of the Seattle strike?

The general strike in Seattle in February 1919 represented a new development in labor unrest. The fears of Wilson and other government officials were confirmed when Galleanists —Italian immigrant followers of the anarchist Luigi Galleani —carried out a series of bombings in April and June 1919.

How many warrants were canceled in Palmer?

In a few weeks, after changes in personnel at the Department of Labor, Palmer faced a new and very independent-minded Acting Secretary of Labor in Assistant Secretary of Labor Louis Freeland Post, who canceled more than 2,000 warrants as being illegal. Of the 10,000 arrested, 3,500 were held by authorities in detention; 556 resident aliens were eventually deported under the Immigration Act of 1918.

What was the purpose of the Palmer Raids?

Department of Justice in 1919 and 1920 in an attempt to arrest foreign anarchists, communists, and radical leftists, many of whom were subsequently deported.

What is the Department of Justice?

U.S. Department of Justice. U.S. Department of Justice, executive division of the U.S. federal government responsible for law enforcement. Headed by the U.S. attorney general, it investigates and prosecutes cases under federal antitrust, civil-rights, criminal, tax, and environmental laws. It controls the Federal Bureau ...

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Overview

Raids and arrests in January 1920

As Attorney General Palmer struggled with exhaustion and devoted all his energies to the United Mine Workers coal strike in November and December 1919, Hoover organized the next raids. He successfully persuaded the Department of Labor to ease its insistence on promptly alerting those arrested of their right to an attorney. Instead, Labor issued instructions that its represen…

Background

During the First World War there was a nationwide campaign in the United States against the real and imagined divided political loyalties of immigrants and ethnic groups, who were feared to have too much loyalty for their nations of origin. In 1915, President Wilson warned against hyphenated Americanswho, he charged, had "poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life." "Such creatures of passion, disloyalty and anarchy", Wilson continued, "must be cru…

Preparations

In June 1919, Attorney General Palmer told the House Appropriations Committee that all evidence promised that radicals would "on a certain day...rise up and destroy the government at one fell swoop." He requested an increase in his budget to $2,000,000 from $1,500,000 to support his investigations of radicals, but Congress limited the increase to $100,000.
An initial raid in July 1919 against an anarchist group in Buffalo, New York, achieved little when …

Aftermath

In a few weeks, after changes in personnel at the Department of Labor, Palmer faced a new and very independent-minded Acting Secretary of Labor in Assistant Secretary of Labor Louis Freeland Post, who canceled more than 2,000 warrants as being illegal. Of the 10,000 arrested, 3,500 were held by authorities in detention; 556 resident aliens were eventually deported under the Immigration Act of 1918.

See also

• Espionage Act of 1917
• Industrial Workers of the World
• McCarthyism

General bibliography

• Avrich, Paul, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background (Princeton University Press, 1991)
• Chafee, Zechariah, Freedom of Speech (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Howe, 1920)
• Coben, Stanley, A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963)

External links

• Media related to Palmer Raids at Wikimedia Commons