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8.1: The Palmer Raids

Created by: CK-12

In 1917, a revolution toppled Russia’s Czar, and replaced him with a communist government. Also, immediately after World War One, the country experienced high inflation, high unemployment, and a number of labor strikes. Against this backdrop, the United States began arresting and deporting anyone suspected of “radical” thinking (e.g., Communism, socialism, anarchism, pro-labor). These arrests became known as the “Palmer Raids” after the Attorney General of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer.

The Case Against the “Reds” – A. Mitchell Palmer

Source: Excerpt from an essay written by A. Mitchell Palmer called “The Case Against the ‘Reds,'” 1920.






  1. Sourcing: Who wrote this document? What is his perspective?
  2. Sourcing: What do you predict he will say?
  3. Close reading: Palmer says, “Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American institution of law and order a year ago.” What is he referring to? How do these words make the reader feel?
  4. Close Reading: How does Palmer describe Communism? Why does he think it’s dangerous?

Deportation Statement – Emma Goldman

Source: Excerpt from the statement Emma Goldman gave at her deportation hearings. Goldman was an anarchist and socialist who sympathized with the working poor. She was deported during the Palmer Raids.

At the very outset of this hearing I wish to register my protest against these star chamber proceedings, whose very spirit is nothing less than a revival of the ancient days of the Spanish Inquisition or the more recently defunct Third Degree system of Czarist Russia....

Today so-called aliens are deported, tomorrow native Americans will be banished. Already some patrioteers are suggesting that native American sons to whom Democracy is not a sham but a sacred ideal should be exiled....

The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society. In truth, it is such free expression and discussion alone that can point the most beneficial path for human progress and development. But the object of deportations and of the Anti-Anarchist law, as of all similar repressive measures, is the very opposite. It is to stifle the voice of the people, to muzzle every aspiration of labor. That is the real and terrible menace of the star chamber proceedings and of the tendency of exiling and banishing everyone who does not fit into the scheme of things our industrial lords are so eager to perpetuate.

Emma Goldman

New York, October 27, 1919


  1. Sourcing: Who wrote this document? What is her perspective?
  2. Sourcing: What do you predict she will say?
  3. Close Reading: According to Goldman, what is the goal of the Palmer raids? What is wrong with them?
  4. Contextualization: What else was going on at this time?

Section Questions:

  1. Corroboration: Considering both of these documents, why did Palmer arrest thousands of people and deport hundreds between 1919-1920?

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