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 creation of a communist state heightened fears of communism spreading within the United States. On June 2, 1919, militant anarchist Carlo Valdinoci blew up the front of newly appointed Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer’s home in Washington, D.C., killing himself when the bomb exploded too early. The bombing was one in a series of coordinated attacks that day on judges, politicians, law enforcement officials, and others in eight cities nationwide. Palmer created a small division to gather intelligence on the radical threat and placed young Justice Department lawyer J. Edgar Hoover in charge. Together, Palmer and Hoover created the General Intelligence Division in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and secured increased funds from Congress to devote to anticommunist activities. The raids particularly targeted Italian immigrants and Eastern European Jewish immigrants with alleged leftist ties, focusing on Italian anarchists and immigrant leftist labor activists. The first raids on November 7, 1919 resulted in hundreds of arrests. More raids followed on January 2, 1920, when Justice Department agents conducted raids in 33 cities, arresting 3,000 people. Total arrests across 36 cities reached 6,000 people. These arrests led to 249 deportations on December 21, 1919 aboard the USS Buford, nicknamed the “Soviet Ark” and “Red Ark.” Among deportees were famed anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Though 556 foreign citizens were deported including prominent leftist leaders, Palmer’s efforts were largely frustrated by Acting Secretary of Labor Louis Post, who had authority for deportations and reversed more than 70% of the 1,600 deportation warrants. In June 1920, Massachusetts District Court Judge George W. Anderson ordered discharge of 17 arrested aliens and denounced the Department of Justice’s actions, writing that “a mob is a mob, whether made up of Government officials acting under instructions from the Department of Justice, or of criminals and loafers and the vicious classes.” As news of the raids’ brutality became public and constitutionality was questioned, the National Civil Liberties Bureau and others publicly challenged Palmer’s actions. Palmer’s unfulfilled predictions of a May Day 1920 revolution destroyed his credibility, diminishing the Red Scare and ending the raids. The American Civil Liberties Union was formed with the stated goal of protecting constitutional rights and civil liberties.