Palmer Raids Begin: Attorney General and J. Edgar Hoover Arrest 6,000 in 36 Cities, Deport 249 on "Soviet Ark"

The U.S. Department of Justice began a series of raids on November 7—a date selected to coincide with the anniversary of the Russian Revolution—to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists and communists, and deport them from the United States. The Russian Revolution in 1917 and …