FBI agents executed coordinated early-morning raids on the homes and offices of anti-war and international solidarity activists in Minneapolis, Chicago, and other cities, seizing computers, phones, documents, and political materials. The raids targeted activists organizing against the Iraq and …
FBIDepartment of JusticeAnti-war activistsGrand juryfbi-abusesurveillanceprotest-suppressionfirst-amendmentpolitical-repression
On January 2, 1920, the Palmer Raids reached their peak with coordinated mass arrests in 33 cities across the United States, targeting alleged radicals, communists, and anarchists. Under the direction of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and 24-year-old J. Edgar Hoover, who headed the Justice …
Attorney General A. Mitchell PalmerJ. Edgar HooverDepartment of JusticeActing Secretary of Labor Louis Postpolitical-repressioncivil-libertiesred-scaredeportation
Congress passed the Sedition Act on May 16, 1918, extending the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and expression of opinion that cast the government or war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. The Act forbade the use of …
U.S. CongressPresident Woodrow WilsonU.S. Postmaster Generalcivil-libertiesfirst-amendmentpolitical-repressionprogressive-era