Increased Social Tensions in the 1920s » The Red Scare, the Palmer Raids and Sacco and Vanzetti

The fear of 'Reds'

In 1917 the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia and set up a Communist state. Many Americans feared the same thing could happen in the USA. They used the word 'Reds' for Communists and for anyone with extreme left-wing ideas. This panic is called the Red Scare.

Key terms:

• Communist: someone who wants workers to own and run industry, with no private owners.
• Anarchist: someone who wants to abolish government altogether.
• Radical: someone who wants very big, sudden political change.
• Deport: to force a foreigner to leave a country.

The fear was fed by events at home in 1919:

Many of the radicals were immigrants, so the fear of Reds and the dislike of foreigners joined together. (For the laws that followed, see Immigration: Closing the Golden Door.)

The Palmer Raids

Palmer was the head of the Department of Justice. He believed a revolution was close, and he wanted to be seen as the man who stopped it. He set up a team under a young official, J. Edgar Hoover, to collect files on suspected radicals. Then the raids began:

• November 1919: agents raided the offices of the Union of Russian Workers in several cities.
• December 1919: a ship nicknamed the 'Soviet Ark' carried 249 people to Russia. They included the well-known anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.
• January 1920: in one night agents raided meeting places in about 30 cities. More than 4,000 people were arrested, many without a proper warrant.

People were held for days, sometimes in poor conditions, and some were not allowed to see a lawyer. Many had done nothing wrong. Most of those arrested were released. In the end only a few hundred were deported.

Why did the raids stop?

Palmer warned that Reds would try to rise up on 1 May 1920. Police stood guard, but nothing happened. Many people began to laugh at his warnings. Louis Post, an official in the government's labour department, cancelled the deportation of many people because the arrests had broken the rules. Lawyers and church leaders also spoke out against the raids. By the summer of 1920 the main panic was over.

Sacco and Vanzetti

The fear did not end with the raids. In April 1920 two men were killed in a robbery of a shoe factory's wages at South Braintree, Massachusetts. In May the police arrested two Italian immigrants: Nicola Sacco, a shoemaker, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a fish seller. Both were anarchists.

Look at what happened next:

• They were tried at Dedham in 1921 before Judge Webster Thayer. Vanzetti had already been convicted in a separate robbery case in 1920.
• The evidence was weak. Witnesses disagreed about what they had seen, and the men had alibis. The prosecution stressed that they were anarchists who had lied to the police when arrested.
• Both men were found guilty in July 1921. Appeals went on for years. In 1925 another prisoner, Celestino Madeiros, said he had been in the gang that did the robbery, but the courts did not reopen the case.
• In April 1927 the two men were sentenced to death. The Governor of Massachusetts then set up a committee, which upheld the verdict in July. They were executed on 23 August 1927.

Why does the case matter?

Many people around the world believed the men were convicted for their beliefs and their background rather than for the crime. Protests took place in many countries. Others in the USA thought the trial was fair. In 1977 the Governor of Massachusetts said the two men had not been treated fairly. The case shows how far suspicion of immigrants and radicals could shape American justice.

Exam-style question

These two sources are real words from the time. Read them, then answer the question.

Study Sources A and B. How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about attitudes to radicals in the USA? Explain your answer. [8 marks]

What lifts this to the top level: it gives agreement and difference, backs each with a short quotation from both sources, and ends with a judgement on how far A supports B.