Progressive Era
166-603: Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary Active Defunct Publications Works The first Red Scare was a period during the early 20th-century history of the United States marked by a widespread fear of far-left movements, including Bolshevism and anarchism , due to real and imagined events; real events included the Russian 1917 October Revolution , German Revolution of 1918–1919 , and anarchist bombings in
332-511: A Galleanist radical who died in spectacular fashion when the bomb he placed at the home of Attorney General Palmer exploded in his face. Though not seriously injured, Attorney General Palmer and his family were thoroughly shaken by the blast, and their home was largely demolished. All of the bombs were delivered with pink flyers bearing the title "Plain Words" that accused the intended victims of waging class war and promised: "We will destroy to rid
498-577: A Wobbly and syndicalist , and claimed this was evidence that the steelworker strike was being masterminded by radicals and revolutionaries. The steel companies played on nativist fears by noting that a large number of steelworkers were immigrants. Public opinion quickly turned against the striking workers. State and local authorities backed the steel companies. They prohibited mass meetings, had their police attack pickets and jailed thousands. After strikebreakers and police clashed with unionists in Gary, Indiana ,
664-609: A "nonmailable matter". Due to the Espionage Act and the then Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson , 74 separate newspapers were not being mailed. In April 1919, authorities discovered a plot for mailing 36 bombs to prominent members of the U.S. political and economic establishment : J. P. Morgan Jr. , John D. Rockefeller , Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes , U.S. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer , and immigration officials. On June 2, 1919, in eight cities, eight bombs exploded simultaneously . One target
830-562: A "volunteer spy", testified on January 22, 1919, during the German phase of the subcommittee's work. He established that anti-war and anti-draft activism during World War I, which he described as pro-German activity, had now transformed itself into propaganda "developing sympathy for the Bolshevik movement". America's wartime enemy, though defeated, had exported an ideology that now ruled Russia and threatened America anew. "The Bolshevik movement
996-565: A 15-year-old anarchist named Becky Edelsohn . Goldman was pained by his rejection of her but considered it a consequence of his prison experience. Later that year she served as a delegate from the US to the International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam . Anarchists and syndicalists from around the world gathered to sort out the tension between the two ideologies, but no decisive agreement was reached. Goldman returned to
1162-961: A blunt directive from Moscow denouncing the Polish government. On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland and occupied the Polish territory assigned to it by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, followed by co-ordination with German forces in Poland. The CPUSA turned the focus of its public activities from anti-fascism to advocating peace, not only opposing military preparations, but also condemning those opposed to Hitler . The party did not at first attack President Roosevelt, reasoning that this could devastate American Communism, blaming instead Roosevelt's advisors. On November 30, when Soviet Union attacked Finland and after forced mutual assistance pacts from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ,
1328-645: A book about her experiences, My Disillusionment in Russia . While living in England, Canada, and France, she wrote an autobiography called Living My Life . It was published in two volumes, in 1931 and 1935. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , Goldman traveled to Spain to support the anarchist revolution there. She died in Toronto , Ontario, Canada, in 1940, aged 70. During her life, Goldman
1494-520: A bouquet of roses, Goldman met him on the train platform and found herself "seized by terror and pity" as she beheld his gaunt, pale form. Neither was able to speak; they returned to her home in silence. For weeks, he struggled to readjust to life on the outside: An abortive speaking tour ended in failure, and in Cleveland he purchased a revolver with the intent of killing himself. Upon returning to New York, he learned that Goldman had been arrested with
1660-469: A commitment to free love and Reitman took a variety of lovers, but Goldman did not. She tried to reconcile her feelings of jealousy with a belief in freedom of the heart but found it difficult. Two years later, Goldman began feeling frustrated with lecture audiences. She yearned to "reach the few who really want to learn, rather than the many who come to be amused". She collected a series of speeches and items she had written for Mother Earth and published
1826-525: A communal apartment with his cousin Modest "Fedya" Stein and Goldman's friend, Helen Minkin, on 42nd Street . Although their relationship had numerous difficulties, Goldman and Berkman would share a close bond for decades, united by their anarchist principles and commitment to personal equality. In 1892, Goldman joined with Berkman and Stein in opening an ice cream shop in Worcester, Massachusetts . After
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#17327723918731992-741: A few months of operating the shop, Goldman and Berkman were diverted to participate in the Homestead Strike near Pittsburgh . Berkman and Goldman came together through the Homestead Strike . In June 1892, a steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania , owned by Andrew Carnegie became the focus of national attention when talks between the Carnegie Steel Company and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) broke down. The factory's manager
2158-449: A group of activists meeting to reflect on Czolgosz. Invigorated anew by this violation of freedom of assembly , he declared, "My resurrection has come!" and set about securing their release. Berkman took the helm of Mother Earth in 1907, while Goldman toured the country to raise funds to keep it operating. Editing the magazine was a revitalizing experience for Berkman. But his relationship with Goldman faltered, and he had an affair with
2324-631: A huge New York City parade celebrated the return of General John J. Pershing , the hero of the American Expeditionary Force . A report from Washington, D.C., included this headline: "Senators Think Effort to Sovietize the Government Is Started". Senator Henry Cabot Lodge saw in the strike the dangers of the national labor movement: "If the American Federation of Labor succeeds in getting hold of
2490-447: A human being". Czolgosz, despite considerable evidence of mental illness , was convicted of murder and executed. Throughout her detention and after her release, Goldman steadfastly refused to condemn Czolgosz's actions, standing virtually alone in doing so. Friends and supporters—including Berkman—urged her to quit his cause. But Goldman defended Czolgosz as a "supersensitive being" and chastised other anarchists for abandoning him. She
2656-554: A majority of the nation's newspapers expressed support of the strikers, Goldman and Berkman resolved to assassinate Frick, an action they expected would inspire the workers to revolt against the capitalist system. Berkman chose to carry out the assassination and ordered Goldman to stay behind in order to explain his motives after he went to jail. He would be in charge of "the deed"; she of the associated propaganda. Berkman set off for Pittsburgh on his way to Homestead, where he planned to shoot Frick. Goldman, meanwhile, decided to help fund
2822-518: A mass uprising were commonly invoked by political officials at the time. Repression by the government was also prevalent; two examples include the Palmer Raids and Lusk Committee raids . The period was also marked by anti-Semitic rhetoric. In 1920, the five Socialist members of the New York state assembly were expelled from it by a vote of 140 to 6, partially in response to their support for
2988-521: A momentous speech in Cleveland , she felt as though she had become "a parrot repeating Most's views" and resolved to express herself on the stage. When she returned to New York, Most became furious and told her: "Who is not with me is against me!" She left Freiheit and joined another publication, Die Autonomie . Meanwhile, Goldman had begun a friendship with Berkman, whom she affectionately called Sasha. Before long they became lovers and moved into
3154-530: A perceived threat from the American labor movement , anarchist revolution , and political radicalism that followed revolutionary socialist movements in Germany and Russia during the 19th–early 20th century. The Second Red Scare , which occurred immediately after World War II , was preoccupied with the perception that national or foreign communists were infiltrating or subverting American society and
3320-445: A pre-WWII isolationist tradition on the right. Liberal anti-communists believed that political debate was enough to show Communists as disloyal and irrelevant, while countersubversive anticommunists believed that Communists had to be exposed and punished. At times, countersubversive anticommunists accused liberals of being "equally destructive" as Communists due to an alleged lack of religious values or supposed "red web" infiltration into
3486-475: A public lecture and demanded, onstage, that Most explain his betrayal. He dismissed her, whereupon she struck him with the whip, broke it on her knee, and hurled the pieces at him. She later regretted her assault, confiding to a friend: "At the age of twenty-three, one does not reason." When the Panic of 1893 struck in the following year, the United States suffered one of its worst economic crises. By year's end,
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#17327723918733652-519: A residence there with friends of Goldman. On September 6, 1901, Leon Czolgosz , an unemployed factory worker and anarchist, shot US President William McKinley twice during a public speaking event in Buffalo, New York . McKinley was hit in the breastbone and stomach, and died eight days later. Czolgosz was arrested, and interrogated around the clock. During interrogation he claimed to be an anarchist and said he had been inspired to act after attending
3818-541: A revival of Red Scare politics in the United States, and for its ties to conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney and conservative activist Steve Bannon . David Skidmore, writing for The Diplomat , saw it as another instance of "adolescent hysteria" in American diplomacy, as another of the "fevered crusades [which] have produced some of the costliest mistakes in American foreign policy". Between 2000 and 2023, there were 224 reported instances of Chinese espionage directed at
3984-558: A significant and enduring influence on the course of her life. At Sachs' Café, a gathering place for radicals, she was introduced to Alexander Berkman , an anarchist who invited her to a public speech that evening. They went to hear Johann Most , editor of a radical publication called Freiheit and an advocate of " propaganda of the deed "—the use of violence to instigate change. She was impressed by his fiery oration, and Most took her under his wing, training her in methods of public speaking. He encouraged her vigorously, telling her that she
4150-490: A speech by Goldman. The authorities used this as a pretext to charge Goldman with planning McKinley's assassination. They tracked her to the residence in Chicago she shared with Havel, as well as with Mary and Abe Isaak , an anarchist couple and their family. Goldman was arrested, along with Isaak, Havel, and ten other anarchists. Earlier, Czolgosz had tried but failed to become friends with Goldman and her companions. During
4316-508: A talk in Cleveland, Czolgosz had approached Goldman and asked her advice on which books he should read. In July 1901, he had appeared at the Isaak house, asking a series of unusual questions. They assumed he was an infiltrator, like a number of police agents sent to spy on radical groups. They had remained distant from him, and Abe Isaak sent a notice to associates warning of "another spy". Although Czolgosz repeatedly denied Goldman's involvement,
4482-520: A union, much less one affiliated with a larger organization like the AFL. During the strike, Boston experienced two nights of lawlessness until several thousand members of the State Guard supported by volunteers restored order, though not without causing several deaths. The public, fed by lurid press accounts and hyperbolic political observers, viewed the strike with a degree of alarm out of proportion to
4648-486: A variety of writers. These included the French philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon , Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin , German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , and British writer Mary Wollstonecraft . Goldman wrote frequently about anarchism, politics, labor issues, atheism, sexuality, and feminism, and was the first editor of the magazine. On May 18 of the same year, Alexander Berkman was released from prison. Carrying
4814-469: A wave of rent strikes occurred across all of New York City and Jersey City from 1918 to 1920. While it is unclear exactly how many tenants were involved, at least tens of thousands and likely hundreds of thousands tenants struck. In response to the strikes, which was marked heavily by the Red Scare, rhetoric accusing tenant leaders of being Bolsheviks and comments that claimed a fear that there would be
4980-560: A year after the wedding, the couple were divorced; Kershner begged Goldman to return and threatened to poison himself if she did not. They reunited, but after three months she left once again. Her parents considered her behavior "loose" and refused to allow Goldman into their home. Carrying her sewing machine in one hand and a bag with five dollars in the other, she left Rochester and headed southeast to New York City. On her first day in New York City, Goldman met two men who would have
5146-636: A year later. Goldman began working as a seamstress , sewing overcoats for more than ten hours a day, earning two and a half dollars a week. She asked for a raise and was denied; she quit and took work at a smaller shop nearby. At her new job, Goldman met a fellow worker named Jacob Kershner, who shared her love for books, dancing, and traveling, as well as her frustration with the monotony of factory work. After four months, they married in February 1887. Once he moved in with Goldman's family, their relationship faltered. On their wedding night she discovered that he
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5312-660: Is Twentieth-Century Americanism", the chairman, Earl Browder, advertised the CPUSA's integration to the political mainstream. In contrast, the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party opposed U.S. participation in the war and supported labor strikes, even in the war-effort industry. For this reason, James P. Cannon and other SWP leaders were convicted per the Smith Act. In March 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9835 , creating
5478-411: Is a branch of the revolutionary socialism of Germany. It had its origin in the philosophy of Marx and its leaders were Germans." He cited the propaganda efforts of John Reed and gave many examples from the foreign press. He told the senators that "We have found money coming into this country from Russia." The senators were particularly interested in how Bolshevism had united many disparate elements on
5644-470: Is a spy. Abundant accounts in narrative forms contained themes of the infiltration, subversion, invasion, and destruction of American society by un–American thought . Even a baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds , temporarily renamed themselves the "Cincinnati Redlegs" to avoid the money-losing and career-ruining connotations inherent in being ball-playing "Reds" (communists). In 1954, Congress passed
5810-774: Is known as " McCarthyism " after its best-known advocate, Senator Joseph McCarthy . McCarthyism coincided with an increased and widespread fear of communist espionage that was consequent of the increasing tension in the Cold War through the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe , the Berlin Blockade (1948–49), the end of the Chinese Civil War , the confessions of spying for the Soviet Union that were made by several high-ranking U.S. government officials, and
5976-550: Is no right to strike against the public safety, anywhere, anytime." The strike proved another setback for labor and the AFL immediately withdrew its recognition of police unions. Coolidge won the Republican nomination for Vice-President in the 1920 presidential election in part due to his actions during the Boston Police Strike. Following a housing and coal shortage caused by the mobilization for World War I,
6142-623: The Anarchist Exclusion Act (1903) stirred a new wave of oppositional activism, pulling Goldman back into the movement. A coalition of people and organizations across the left end of the political spectrum opposed the law on grounds that it violated freedom of speech , and she had the nation's ear once again. After an English anarchist named John Turner was arrested under the Anarchist Exclusion Act and threatened with deportation, Goldman joined forces with
6308-714: The Communist Control Act of 1954 which prevented members of the communist party in America from holding office in labor unions and other labor organizations. Examining the political controversies of the 1940s and 1950s, historian John Earl Haynes , who studied the Venona decryptions extensively, argued that Joseph McCarthy's attempts to "make anti-communism a partisan weapon" actually "threatened [the post-War] anti-Communist consensus", thereby ultimately harming anti-communist efforts more than helping them. Meanwhile,
6474-629: The Communist Party USA Murray B. Levin wrote that the Red Scare was "a nationwide anti-radical hysteria provoked by a mounting fear and anxiety that a Bolshevik revolution in America was imminent—a revolution that would change Church, home, marriage, civility, and the American way of Life". News media exacerbated such fears, channeling them into anti-foreign sentiment due to the lively debate among recent immigrants from Europe regarding various forms of anarchism as possible solutions to widespread poverty. The Industrial Workers of
6640-680: The Free Speech League to champion his cause. The league enlisted the aid of noted attorneys Clarence Darrow and Edgar Lee Masters , who took Turner's case to the US Supreme Court . Although Turner and the League lost, Goldman considered it a victory of propaganda. She had returned to anarchist activism, but it was taking its toll on her. "I never felt so weighed down," she wrote to Berkman. "I fear I am forever doomed to remain public property and to have my life worn out through
6806-612: The German-American Bund , and the perceived racial disloyalty of the Japanese-American population ( cf. hyphenated-Americans ). After the Soviet Union signed the non-aggression Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany on August 23, 1939, negative attitudes towards communists in the United States were on the rise. While the American communist party at first attacked Germany for its September 1, 1939 invasion of western Poland , on September 11 it received
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6972-828: The Immigration Act of 1918 . The Espionage Act made it a crime to interfere with the operation or success of the military, and the Sedition Act forbade Americans to use "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government , flag , or armed forces of the United States during war. The Immigration Act of 1918 targeted anarchists by name and was used to deport Emma Goldman , Alexander Berkman and Luigi Galleani , among others. On January 21, 1919, 35,000 shipyard workers in Seattle went on strike seeking wage increases. They appealed to
7138-645: The Korean War (1950–53) against U.S. ally South Korea . A few of the events during the Red Scare were also due to a power struggle between director of FBI J. Edgar Hoover and the Central Intelligence Agency . Hoover had instigated and aided some of the investigations of members of the CIA with "leftist" history, like Cord Meyer . This conflict could also be traced back to the conflict between Hoover and William J. Donovan , going back to
7304-685: The Kremlin has." In 1954, after accusing the army, including war heroes, Senator Joseph McCarthy lost credibility in the eyes of the American public and the Army-McCarthy Hearings were held in the summer of 1954. He was formally censured by his colleagues in Congress and the hearings led by McCarthy came to a close. After the Senate formally censured McCarthy, his political standing and power were significantly diminished, and much of
7470-579: The New Deal . Much evidence for Soviet espionage existed, according to Democratic Senator and historian Daniel Moynihan , with the Venona project consisting of "overwhelming proof of the activities of Soviet spy networks in America, complete with names, dates, places, and deeds." However, Moynihan argued that because sources like the Venona project were kept secret for so long, "ignorant armies clashed by night". With McCarthy advocating an extremist view,
7636-557: The New York Times with evidence of Bolshevist propaganda targeting America's black communities that was "paralleling the agitation that is being carried on in industrial centres of the North and West, where there are many alien laborers". Vehicles for this propaganda about the "doctrines of Lenin and Trotzky" included newspapers, magazines, and "so-called 'negro betterment' organizations ". Quotations from such publications contrasted
7802-528: The South Side were destroyed by mobs, and a militia force of several thousand was called in to restore order. In mid-summer, in the middle of the Chicago riots, a "federal official" told the New York Times that the violence resulted from "an agitation, which involves the I.W.W., Bolshevism and the worst features of other extreme radical movements". He supported that claim with copies of negro publications that called for alliances with leftist groups, praised
7968-428: The U.S. Army took over the city on October 6, 1919, and martial law was declared. National Guardsmen, leaving Gary after federal troops had taken over, turned their anger on strikers in nearby Indiana Harbor, Indiana . Steel companies also turned toward strikebreaking and rumor-mongering to demoralize the picketers. They brought in between 30,000 and 40,000 African-American and Mexican-American workers to work in
8134-499: The U.S. Constitution via Palmer-authorized "illegal acts" and "wanton violence". Defensively, Palmer then warned that a government-deposing left-wing revolution would begin on 1 May 1920— May Day , the International Workers' Day. When it failed to happen, he was ridiculed and lost much credibility. Strengthening the legal criticism of Palmer was that fewer than 600 deportations were substantiated with evidence, out of
8300-639: The federal government . The first Red Scare in the United States accompanied the Russian Revolution of 1917 (specifically, the October Revolution ) and subsequent communist revolutions in Europe and beyond . Citizens of the United States in the years of World War I (1914–1918) were intensely patriotic; anarchist and left-wing social agitation aggravated national, social, and political tensions. Political scientist and former member of
8466-462: The " Federal Employees Loyalty Program " establishing political-loyalty review boards who determined the "Americanism" of Federal Government employees, and requiring that all federal employees to take an oath of loyalty to the United States government. It then recommended termination of those who had confessed to spying for the Soviet Union, as well as some suspected of being "Un-American". This led to more than 2,700 dismissals and 12,000 resignations from
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#17327723918738632-408: The "shockingly high level" of infiltration by Soviet agents during WWII had largely dissipated by 1950. Liberal anti-communists like Edward Shils and Daniel Moynihan had contempt for McCarthyism, and Moynihan argued that McCarthy's overreaction distracted from the "real (but limited) extent of Soviet espionage in America." In 1950, President Harry Truman called Joseph McCarthy "the greatest asset
8798-517: The 1890s and had seen none of the violence associated with the day's events in Europe. On May 1, 1919, the left mounted especially large demonstrations, and violence greeted the normally peaceful parades in Boston , New York , and Cleveland . In Boston, police tried to stop a march that lacked a permit. In the ensuing melee both sides fought for possession of the Socialists' red flags. One policeman
8964-585: The 1930s, communism had become an attractive economic ideology , particularly among labor leaders and intellectuals. By 1939, the CPUSA had about 50,000 members. In 1940, soon after World War II began in Europe, the U.S. Congress legislated the Alien Registration Act (aka the Smith Act , 18 USC § 2385) making it a crime to "knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise or teach the duty, necessity, desirability or propriety of overthrowing
9130-586: The 1970s by a revival of interest in her life, when feminist and anarchist scholars rekindled popular interest. Emma Goldman was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Kaunas in Lithuania, then within the Russian Empire. Goldman's mother Taube Bienowitch had been married before to a man with whom she had two daughters—Helena in 1860 and Lena in 1862. When her first husband died of tuberculosis , Taube
9296-466: The AFL recognized that the strike was damaging labor in the public mind and advised the strikers to return to work. The Police Commissioner, however, remained adamant and refused to re-hire the striking policemen. He was supported by Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge , whose rebuke of Gompers earned him a national reputation. Famous as a man of few words, he put the anti-union position simply: "There
9462-481: The American activist-writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau ; novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne ; poet Walt Whitman , and philosopher John Stuart Mill . When Goldman was released after ten months, a raucous crowd of nearly 3,000 people greeted her at the Thalia Theater in New York City. She soon became swamped with requests for interviews and lectures. To make money, Goldman decided to continue
9628-485: The Boston police department. The press portrayed these worker strikes as "radical threats to American society" inspired by "left-wing, foreign agents provocateurs ". The IWW and those sympathetic to workers claimed that the press "misrepresented legitimate labor strikes" as "crimes against society", "conspiracies against the government", and "plots to establish communism". Opponents of labor viewed strikes as an extension of
9794-490: The Chicago Haymarket affair , Goldman became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights , and social issues , attracting crowds of thousands. She and anarchist writer Alexander Berkman , her lover and lifelong friend, planned to assassinate industrialist and financier Henry Clay Frick as an act of propaganda of the deed . Frick survived the attempt on his life in 1892, and Berkman
9960-568: The Communist Party considered Russian security sufficient justification to support the actions. Secret short wave radio broadcasts in October from Comintern leader Georgi Dimitrov ordered CPUSA leader Earl Browder to change the party's support for Roosevelt. On October 23, the party began attacking Roosevelt. The party was active in the isolationist America First Committee . The CPUSA also dropped its boycott of Nazi goods, spread
10126-820: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – within the Department of Justice, and used federal agents to jail more than 5,000 citizens and to search homes without respecting their constitutional rights. In 1918, before the bombings, President Woodrow Wilson had pressured Congress to legislate the anti-anarchist Sedition Act of 1918 to protect wartime morale by deporting putatively undesirable political people. Law professor David D. Cole reports that President Wilson's "federal government consistently targeted alien radicals, deporting them... for their speech or associations, making little effort to distinguish terrorists from ideological dissidents ". President Wilson used
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#173277239187310292-416: The Federal agents against Reds and suspected-Reds". In the event, twelve publicly prominent lawyers characterized the Palmer Raids as unconstitutional. The critics included future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter , who published A Report on the Illegal Practices of The United States Department of Justice , documenting systematic violations of the Fourth , Fifth , Sixth , and Eighth Amendments to
10458-437: The Government of the United States or of any State by force or violence, or for anyone to organize any association which teaches, advises or encourages such an overthrow, or for anyone to become a member of or to affiliate with any such association"—and required Federal registration of all foreign nationals . Although principally deployed against communists, the Smith Act was also used against right-wing political threats such as
10624-418: The Machinery Sold to Them for a Song On the release of the final report, newspapers printed sensational articles with headlines in capital letters: "Red Peril Here", "Plan Bloody Revolution", and "Want Washington Government Overturned". There were several anarchist bombings in 1919. In late April 1919, approximately 36 booby trap bombs were mailed to prominent politicians, including the Attorney General of
10790-472: The May Day marchers for provoking the nationalists' response. The Salt Lake City Tribune did not think anyone had a right to march. It said: "Free speech has been carried to the point where it is an unrestrained menace." A few, however, thought the marches were harmless and that the marchers' enthusiasm would die down on its own if they were left unmolested. More than two dozen American communities, mostly urban areas or industrial centers, saw racial violence in
10956-406: The New Red Scare has caused the American and Chinese governments to "increasingly view Chinese students with suspicion" on American college campuses. The fourth iteration of the Committee on the Present Danger , a United States foreign policy interest group, was established on March 25, 2019, branding itself Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC). The CPDC has been criticized as promoting
11122-401: The Philippine Islands a penal colony to which those convicted of an attempt to overthrow the government could be deported. Red Scare A Red Scare is a form of moral panic provoked by fear of the rise, supposed or real, of leftist ideologies in a society, especially communism and socialism . Historically, "red scares" have led to mass political persecution , scapegoating , and
11288-488: The Red Scare did not distinguish between communism , anarchism , socialism , or social democracy . This aggressive crackdown on certain ideologies resulted in many Supreme Court cases over free speech. In the 1919 case of Schenk v. United States , the Supreme Court, introducing the clear-and-present-danger test, effectively deemed the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 constitutional. The second Red Scare occurred after World War II (1939–1945), and
11454-523: The Russians as "assassins and madmen", "human scum", "crime mad", and "beasts". The occasional testimony by some who viewed the Bolshevik Revolution favorably lacked the punch of its critics. One extended headline in February read: Bolshevism Bared by R. E. Simmons; Former Agent in Russia of Commerce Department Concludes his Story to Senators Women are 'Nationalized' Official Decrees Reveal Depths of Degradation to Which They are Subjected by Reds Germans Profit by Chaos Factories and Mills are Closed and
11620-498: The Seattle Central Labor Council for support from other unions and found widespread enthusiasm. Within two weeks, more than 100 local unions joined in a call on February 3 for a general strike to begin on the morning of February 6. The 60,000 total strikers paralyzed the city's normal activities, like streetcar service, schools, and ordinary commerce, while their General Strike Committee maintained order and provided essential services, like trash collection and milk deliveries. Even before
11786-812: The Seattle General Strike, arrived early and failed to explode as intended. Seattle police in turn notified the Post Office and other police agencies. On April 29, a package sent to U.S. Senator Thomas W. Hardwick of Georgia, a sponsor of the Anarchist Exclusion Act , exploded injuring his wife and housekeeper. On April 30, a post office employee in New York City recognized sixteen packages by their wrapping and interrupted their delivery. Another twelve bombs were recovered before reaching their targets. In June 1919, eight bombs, far larger than those mailed in April, exploded almost simultaneously in several U.S. cities. These new bombs were believed to contain up to twenty-five pounds of dynamite, and all were wrapped or packaged with heavy metal slugs designed to act as shrapnel. All of
11952-451: The Sedition Act of 1918 to limit the exercise of free speech by criminalizing language deemed disloyal to the United States government. Initially, the press praised the raids; The Washington Post stated: "There is no time to waste on hairsplitting over [the] infringement of liberty", and The New York Times wrote that the injuries inflicted upon the arrested were "souvenirs of the new attitude of aggressiveness which had been assumed by
12118-618: The Soviet Union—in the process revealing the extraordinary breadth of the Soviet spy network in infiltrating the federal government. The process also launched the successful political careers of Richard Nixon and Robert F. Kennedy , as well as that of Joseph McCarthy. The HUAC held a large interest in investigating those in the entertainment industry in Hollywood. They interrogated actors, writers, and producers. The people who cooperated in
12284-421: The Soviet regime, and contrasted the courage of jailed Socialist Eugene V. Debs with the "school boy rhetoric" of traditional black leaders. The Times characterized the publications as "vicious and apparently well financed," mentioned "certain factions of the radical Socialist elements", and reported it all under the headline: "Reds Try to Stir Negroes to Revolt". In mid-October, government sources again provided
12450-591: The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary chaired by North Carolina Democrat Lee Slater Overman . First charged with investigating German subversion during World War I, its mandate was extended on February 4, 1919, just a day after the announcement of the Seattle General Strike, to study "any efforts being made to propagate in this country the principles of any party exercising or claiming to exercise any authority in Russia" and "any effort to incite
12616-571: The U.S. At its height in 1919–1920, concerns over the effects of radical political agitation in American society and the alleged spread of socialism , communism , and anarchism in the American labor movement fueled a general sense of concern. The scare had its origins in the hyper-nationalism of World War I as well as the Russian Revolution. At the war's end, following the October Revolution, American authorities saw
12782-692: The U.S. government before, during and after World War II. Other U.S. citizen spies confessed to their acts of espionage in situations where the statute of limitations on prosecuting them had run out. In 1949, anti-communist fear, and fear of American traitors, was aggravated by the Chinese Communists winning the Chinese Civil War against the Western-sponsored Kuomintang , their founding of the Communist China , and later China intervenes (October–December 1950) in
12948-555: The US and continued speaking to large audiences. For the next ten years, Goldman traveled around the country nonstop, delivering lectures and agitating for anarchism. The coalitions formed in opposition to the Anarchist Exclusion Act had given her an appreciation for reaching out to those of other political positions. When the US Justice Department sent spies to observe, they reported the meetings as "packed". Writers, journalists, artists, judges, and workers from across
13114-561: The US. Alternating between lectures and midwifery, Goldman conducted the first cross-country tour by an anarchist speaker. In November 1899, she returned to Europe to speak, where she met the Czech anarchist Hippolyte Havel in London. They went together to France and helped organize the 1900 International Anarchist Congress on the outskirts of Paris. Afterward, Havel immigrated to the United States, traveling with Goldman to Chicago. They shared
13280-399: The United States is no longer a specter. Boston in chaos reveals its sinister substance." President Woodrow Wilson , speaking from Montana, branded the walkout "a crime against civilization" that left the city "at the mercy of an army of thugs". The timing of the strike also happened to present the police union in the worst light. September 10, the first full day of the strike, was also the day
13446-544: The United States, judges, businessmen (including John D. Rockefeller ), and a Bureau of Investigation field agent, R. W. Finch, who happened to be investigating the Galleanist organization. The bombs were mailed in identical packages and were timed to arrive on May Day, the day of celebration of organized labor and the working class. A few of the packages went undelivered because they lacked sufficient postage. One bomb intended for Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson , who had opposed
13612-767: The United States. The American Red Scares, combined with the general atmosphere of the Cold War, had a marked influence on other Anglophone countries. Anticommunist paranoia and violence was significantly advanced in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In other parts of the world , such as Indonesia , fear and loathing of communism has escalated to the level of political violence . Emma Goldman Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940)
13778-577: The World (IWW), also known as the Wobblies, backed several labor strikes in 1916 and 1917. These strikes covered a wide range of industries including steel working, shipbuilding, coal mining, copper mining, and others necessary for wartime activities. After World War I ended (November 1918), the number of strikes increased to record levels in 1919, with more than 3,600 separate strikes by a wide range of workers, e.g. steel workers, railroad shop workers, and
13944-781: The act a "mockery of the Bill of Rights" and a "long step toward totalitarianism" because it represented a government restriction on the freedom of opinion. He vetoed the act but his veto was overridden by Congress. Much of the bill eventually was repealed. The formal establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950 meant that Asian Americans , especially those of Chinese or Korean descent, came under increasing suspicion by both American civilians and government officials of being Communist sympathizers. Simultaneously, some American politicians saw
14110-400: The age of fifteen. They fought about the issue constantly; he complained that she was becoming a "loose" woman, and she insisted that she would marry for love alone. At the corset shop, she was forced to fend off unwelcome advances from Russian officers and other men. One man took her into a hotel room and committed what Goldman described as "violent contact"; two biographers call it rape. She
14276-629: The age of seven, Goldman moved with her family to the Prussian city of Königsberg (then part of the German Empire), and she was enrolled in a Realschule . One teacher punished disobedient students—targeting Goldman in particular—by beating their hands with a ruler. Another teacher tried to molest his female students and was fired when Goldman fought back. She found a sympathetic mentor in her German-language teacher, who loaned her books and took her to an opera. A passionate student, Goldman passed
14442-571: The area. She responded by throwing a glass of ice water in his face. As she awaited trial, Goldman was visited by Nellie Bly , a reporter for the New York World . She spent two hours talking to Goldman and wrote a positive article about the woman she described as a "modern Joan of Arc ." Despite this positive publicity, the jury was persuaded by Jacobs' testimony and frightened by Goldman's politics. The assistant district attorney questioned Goldman about her anarchism, as well as her atheism;
14608-435: The atom bomb , were found to have engaged in espionage. This allegedly included some pro-Soviet capitalists, such as economist Harry Dexter White , and communist businessman David Karr . According to The New York Times , China 's growing military and economic power has resulted in a "New Red Scare" in the United States. Both Democrats and Republicans have expressed anti-China sentiment. According to The Economist ,
14774-478: The bombing, in which 38 died and 141 were injured. In 1919–20, several states enacted " criminal syndicalism " laws outlawing advocacy of violence in effecting and securing social change . The restrictions included limitations on free speech . Passage of these laws, in turn, provoked aggressive police investigation of the accused persons, their jailing, and deportation for being suspected of being either communist or left-wing. Regardless of ideological gradation,
14940-534: The business. She was "too astounded for speech". She wrote to Helena, claiming illness, and asked her for fifteen dollars. On July 23, Berkman gained access to Frick's office while carrying a concealed handgun; he shot Frick three times, and stabbed him in the leg. A group of workers—far from joining in his attentat —beat Berkman unconscious, and he was carried away by the police. Berkman was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Goldman suffered during his long absence. Convinced Goldman
15106-413: The care for the lives of others." In 1906, Goldman decided to start a publication, "a place of expression for the young idealists in arts and letters". Mother Earth was staffed by a cadre of radical activists, including Hippolyte Havel, Max Baginski , and Leonard Abbott . In addition to publishing original works by its editors and anarchists around the world, Mother Earth reprinted selections from
15272-531: The discussion of communist subversion was made into a civil rights issue instead of a counterintelligence one. This historiographical perspective is shared by historians John Earl Haynes and Robert Louis Benson. While President Truman formulated the Truman Doctrine against Soviet expansion, it is possible he was not fully informed of the Venona intercepts, leaving him unaware of the domestic extent of espionage, according to Moynihan and Benson. By
15438-406: The events, which ultimately produced only about $ 35,000 of property damage. Bolshevism in the United States is no longer a specter. Boston in chaos reveals its sinister substance. — Philadelphia Public Ledger The strikers were called "deserters" and "agents of Lenin." The Philadelphia Public Ledger viewed the Boston violence in the same light as many other of 1919's events: "Bolshevism in
15604-509: The exam for admission into a gymnasium , but her religion teacher refused to provide a certificate of good behavior and she was unable to attend. The family moved to the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg , where her father opened one unsuccessful store after another. Their poverty forced the children to work, and Goldman took an assortment of jobs, including one in a corset shop. As a teenager Goldman begged her father to allow her to return to school, but instead he threw her French book into
15770-472: The failure of my marriage, the Chicago crime...I began to speak. Words I had never heard myself utter before came pouring forth, faster and faster. They came with passionate intensity...The audience had vanished, the hall itself had disappeared; I was conscious only of my own words, of my ecstatic song. Excited by the experience, Goldman refined her public persona during subsequent engagements. She quickly found herself arguing with Most over her independence. After
15936-514: The fear of Communists infiltrating the country. Supporters, however, believe the actions of the HUAC were justified given the level of threat Communism posed to democracy in the United States. Senator McCarthy stirred up further fear in the United States of communists infiltrating the country by saying that communist spies were omnipresent, and he was America's only salvation, using this fear to increase his own influence. In 1950 Joseph McCarthy addressed
16102-781: The fear that the Soviet Union would drop nuclear bombs on the United States, and fear of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). In Canada, the 1946 Kellock–Taschereau Commission investigated espionage after top-secret documents concerning RDX , radar and other weapons were handed over to the Soviets by a domestic spy-ring. At the House Un-American Activities Committee , former CPUSA members and NKVD spies, Elizabeth Bentley and Whittaker Chambers , testified that Soviet spies and communist sympathizers had penetrated
16268-509: The fire and shouted: "Girls do not have to learn much! All a Jewish daughter needs to know is how to prepare gefilte fish , cut noodles fine, and give the man plenty of children." Goldman pursued an independent education on her own . She studied the political turmoil around her, particularly the Nihilists responsible for assassinating Alexander II of Russia . The ensuing turmoil intrigued Goldman, although she did not fully understand it at
16434-596: The first Red Scare, but especially during World War II. Donovan ran the OSS (CIA's predecessor). They had differing opinions on the nature of the alliance with the Soviet Union, conflicts over jurisdiction, conflicts of personality, the OSS hiring of communists and criminals as agents, etc. Historian Richard Powers distinguishes two main forms of anti-communism during the period, liberal anti-communism and countersubversive anti-communism. The countersubversives, he argues, derived from
16600-522: The general strike "Marxian" and "a revolutionary movement aimed at existing government". "It is only a middling step", said the Chicago Tribune , "from Petrograd to Seattle." As early as February 8 some unions began to return to work at the urging of their leaders. Some workers went back to work as individuals, perhaps fearful of losing their jobs if the Mayor acted on his threats or in reaction to
16766-646: The general strike. The non-striking part of Seattle's population imagined the worst and stocked up on food. Hardware stores sold their stock of guns. Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson announced that he had 1500 police and 1500 federal troops on hand to put down any disturbances. He personally oversaw their deployment throughout the city. "The time has come", he said, "for the people in Seattle to show their Americanism ... The anarchists in this community shall not rule its affairs." He promised to use them to replace striking workers, but never carried out that threat. Meanwhile,
16932-492: The horrors of the revolution in Russia and the consequences of a comparable revolution in the United States: the imposition of atheism , the seizure of newspapers, assaults on banks, and the abolition of the insurance industry. The senators heard various views of women in Russia, including claims that women had been made the property of the state. The press reveled in the investigation and the final report, referring to
17098-569: The household a tense place for the children. When Taube became pregnant, Abraham hoped desperately for a son; a daughter, he believed, would be one more sign of failure. They eventually had three sons, but their first child was Emma. Emma Goldman was born on June 27, 1869. Her father used violence to punish his children, beating them when they disobeyed him. He used a whip on Emma, the most rebellious of them. Her mother provided scarce comfort, rarely calling on Abraham to tone down his beatings. Goldman later speculated that her father's furious temper
17264-399: The intended targets had participated in some way with the investigation of or the opposition to anarchist radicals. Along with Attorney General Palmer, who was targeted a second time, the intended victims included a Massachusetts state representative and a New Jersey silk manufacturer. Fatalities included a New York City night watchman, William Boehner, and one of the bombers, Carlo Valdinoci ,
17430-422: The investigations got to continue working as they had been, but people who refused to cooperate were blacklisted . Critics of the HUAC claim their tactics were an abuse of government power and resulted in a witch hunt that disregarded citizens’ rights and ruined their careers and reputations. Critics claim the internal witch hunt was a use for personal gain to spread influence for government officials by intensifying
17596-471: The judge spoke of her as "a dangerous woman". She was sentenced to one year in the Blackwell's Island Penitentiary. Once inside, she suffered an attack of rheumatism and was sent to the infirmary. There, she befriended a visiting doctor and received informal training in nursing , eventually being placed in charge of a 16-bed women's ward in the infirmary. She also read dozens of books, including works by
17762-468: The killer, who had been dating one of Trotsky's secretaries, was a disillusioned follower. In allegiance to the Soviet Union, the party changed this policy again after Hitler broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact by attacking the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The CPUSA opposed labor strikes in the weapons industry and supporting the U.S. war effort against the Axis Powers . With the slogan "Communism
17928-438: The left, including anarchists and socialists of many types, "providing a common platform for all these radical groups to stand on". Senator Knute Nelson , Republican of Minnesota, responded by enlarging Bolshevism's embrace to include an even larger segment of political opinion: "Then they have really rendered a service to the various classes of progressives and reformers that we have here in this country." Other witnesses described
18094-405: The marchers and a melee ensued . A mob ransacked Ruthenberg's headquarters. Mounted police, army trucks, and tanks restored order. Two people died, forty were injured, and 116 arrested. Local newspapers noted that only 8 of those arrested were born in the United States. The city government immediately passed laws to restrict parades and the display of red flags. With few dissents, newspapers blamed
18260-424: The medical studies she had started in prison, but her preferred fields of specialization— midwifery and massage —were unavailable to nursing students in the US. She sailed to Europe, lecturing in London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. She met with renowned anarchists such as Errico Malatesta , Louise Michel , and Peter Kropotkin . In Vienna , she received two diplomas for midwifery and put them immediately to use back in
18426-400: The mills. Company spies also spread rumors that the strike had collapsed elsewhere, and they pointed to the operating steel mills as proof that the strike had been defeated. Congress conducted its own investigation, focused on radical influence upon union activity. In that context, U.S. Senator Kenneth McKellar , a member of the Senate committee investigating the strike, proposed making one of
18592-624: The nation to prepare for a bloody uprising on May Day . Police and militias prepared for the worst, but May Day passed without incident. Soon, public opinion and the courts turned against Palmer, putting an end to his raids and the first Red Scare. In reaction to subversive and militant leftist actions in the United States, the United States Congress passed the Espionage Act in 1917, the Sedition Act of 1918 , and
18758-489: The national leadership of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and international leaders of some of the Seattle locals recognized how inflammatory the general strike was proving in the eyes of the American public and Seattle's middle class. Press and political reaction made the general strike untenable, and they feared Seattle labor would lose gains made during the war if it continued. The national press called
18924-660: The negroes can bring the white bourbon South to its knees. So go to it." The American Federation of Labor (AFL) began granting charters to police unions in June 1919 when pressed to do so by local groups, and in just 5 months had recognized affiliate police unions in 37 cities. The Boston Police rank and file went out on strike on September 9, 1919 in order to achieve recognition for their union and improvements in wages and working conditions. Police Commissioner Edwin Upton Curtis denied that police officers had any right to form
19090-408: The ousting of those in government positions who have had connections with left-wing to far-left ideology. The name is derived from the red flag , a common symbol of communism and socialism. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States which are referred to by this name. The First Red Scare , which occurred immediately after World War I , revolved around
19256-469: The outbreak of the Korean War . The events of the late 1940s, the early 1950s—the trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (1953), the trial of Alger Hiss , the Iron Curtain (1945–1991) around Eastern Europe , and the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test in 1949 ( RDS-1 )—surprised the American public, influencing popular opinion about U.S. national security , which, in turn, was connected to
19422-548: The outbreak of violence. On July 3, the 10th U.S. Cavalry , a segregated African American unit founded in 1866, was attacked by local police in Bisbee, Arizona . Two of the most violent episodes occurred in Washington, D.C. , and Chicago . In Washington, D.C., white men, many in military uniforms, responded to the rumored arrest of a black man for rape with four days of mob violence, rioting and beatings of random black people on
19588-535: The overthrow of the Government of this country". The Committee's hearings into Bolshevik propaganda, conducted from February 11 to March 10, 1919, developed an alarming image of Bolshevism as an imminent threat to the U.S. government and American values. The Committee's final report appeared in June 1919. Archibald E. Stevenson , a New York attorney with ties to the Justice Department , probably as
19754-513: The palaces of the rich; demand work. If they do not give you work, demand bread. If they deny you both, take bread." Later in court, Detective-Sergeant Charles Jacobs offered yet another version of her speech. A week later, Goldman was arrested in Philadelphia and returned to New York City for trial, charged with "inciting to riot". During the train ride, Jacobs offered to drop the charges against her if she would inform on other radicals in
19920-439: The police held her in close custody, subjecting her to what she called the " third degree ". She explained her housemates' distrust of Czolgosz, and the police finally recognized that she had not had any significant contact with the attacker. No evidence was found linking Goldman to the attack, and she was released after two weeks of detention. Before McKinley died, Goldman offered to provide nursing care, referring to him as "merely
20086-416: The police in Boston it will go all over the country, and we shall be in measurable distance of Soviet government by labor unions." The Ohio State Journal opposed any sympathetic treatment of the strikers: "When a policeman strikes, he should be debarred not only from resuming his office, but from citizenship as well. He has committed the unpardonable sin; he has forfeited all his rights." Samuel Gompers of
20252-496: The pressure of life under the general strike. The executive committee of the General Strike Committee first recommended ending the general strike on February 8 but lost that vote. Finally on February 10, the General Strike Committee voted to end the strike the next day. The original strike in the shipyards continued. Though the general strike collapsed because labor leadership viewed it as a misguided tactic from
20418-643: The prospect of American-educated Chinese students bringing their knowledge back to "Red China" as an unacceptable threat to American national security, and laws such as the China Aid Act of 1950 and the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 gave significant assistance to Chinese students who wished to settle in the United States. Despite being naturalized, however, Chinese immigrants continued to face suspicion of their allegiance. The general effect, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison scholar Qing Liu,
20584-509: The radical, anarchist foundations of the IWW, which contends that all workers should be united as a social class and that capitalism and the wage system should be abolished. In June 1917, as a response to World War I, Congress passed the Espionage Act to prevent any information relating to national defense from being used to harm the United States or to aid her enemies. The Wilson administration used this act to make anything "urging treason"
20750-492: The recent violence in Chicago and Washington, D.C., with "Soviet Russia, a country in which dozens of racial and lingual types have settled their many differences and found a common meeting ground, a country which no longer oppresses colonies, a country from which the lynch rope is banished and in which racial tolerance and peace now exist." The New York Times cited one publication's call for unionization: "Negroes must form cotton workers' unions. Southern white capitalists know that
20916-527: The scheme through prostitution. Remembering the character of Sonya in Fyodor Dostoevsky 's novel Crime and Punishment (1866), she mused: "She had become a prostitute in order to support her little brothers and sisters...Sensitive Sonya could sell her body; why not I?" Once on the street, Goldman caught the eye of a man who took her into a saloon, bought her a beer, gave her ten dollars, informed her she did not have "the knack," and told her to quit
21082-506: The senate, citing 81 separate cases, and made accusations against suspected communists. Although he provided little or no evidence, this prompted the Senate to call for a full investigation. Senator McCarran introduced the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 that was passed by the U.S. Congress and which modified a great deal of law to restrict civil liberties in the name of security. President Truman declared
21248-658: The slogans " The Yanks Are Not Coming " and "Hands Off", set up a "perpetual peace vigil" across the street from the White House and announced that Roosevelt was the head of the "war party of the American bourgeoisie". By April 1940, the party Daily Worker ' s line seemed not so much antiwar as simply pro-German. A pamphlet stated the Jews had just as much to fear from Britain and France as they did Germany. In August 1940, after NKVD agent Ramón Mercader killed Trotsky with an ice axe , Browder perpetuated Moscow's fiction that
21414-635: The so-called Palmer Raids during the First Red Scare and deported to Russia in December 1919. Initially supportive of that country's October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power, Goldman changed her opinion in the wake of the Kronstadt rebellion ; she denounced the Soviet Union for its violent repression of independent voices. She left the Soviet Union and in 1923 published
21580-644: The spectrum spoke of her "magnetic power", her "convincing presence", her "force, eloquence, and fire". In the spring of 1908, Goldman met and fell in love with Ben Reitman , the so-called "Hobo doctor". Having grown up in Chicago's Tenderloin District, Reitman spent several years as a drifter before earning a medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago . As a doctor, he treated people suffering from poverty and illness, particularly venereal diseases . He and Goldman began an affair. They shared
21746-416: The start, Mayor Hanson took credit for ending the five-day strike and was hailed for it by the press. He resigned a few months later and toured the country giving lectures on the dangers of "domestic bolshevism". He earned $ 38,000 in seven months, five times his annual salary as mayor. He published a pamphlet called Americanism versus Bolshevism . The Overman Committee was a special five-man subcommittee of
21912-451: The steel industry, including almost all mills in Pueblo, Colorado ; Chicago, Illinois ; Wheeling, West Virginia ; Johnstown, Pennsylvania ; Cleveland, Ohio ; Lackawanna, New York ; and Youngstown, Ohio . The owners quickly turned public opinion against the AFL. As the strike began, they published information exposing AFL National Committee co-chairman William Z. Foster's radical past as
22078-419: The street. When police refused to intervene, the black population fought back. When the violence ended, ten whites were dead, including two police officers, and 5 blacks. Some 150 people had been the victims of attacks. The rioting in Chicago started on July 27. Chicago's beaches along Lake Michigan were segregated in practice, if not by law. A black youth who drifted into the area customarily reserved for whites
22244-529: The strength of congressional investigation committees, and weakening the Smith Act. In the 1957 case Yates v. United States and the 1961 case Scales v. United States , the Supreme Court limited Congress's ability to circumvent the First Amendment, and in 1967 during the Supreme Court case United States v. Robel , the Supreme Court ruled that a ban on communists in the defense industry
22410-449: The strike began, the press tried to persuade the unions to reconsider. In part they were frightened by some of labor's rhetoric, like the labor newspaper editorial that proclaimed: "We are undertaking the most tremendous move ever made by labor in this country ... We are starting on a road that leads – NO ONE KNOWS WHERE!" Daily newspapers saw the general strike as a foreign import: "This is America – not Russia," one said when denouncing
22576-506: The strikes. By its end, the wave of strikes had led to the passage of the first rent laws in the country and fundamentally shifted tenant-landlord relations. However, the more radical tenant groups largely were destroyed by raids or slowly dwindled as a result of the new laws addressing the crisis. Though the leadership of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) opposed a strike in the steel industry, 98% of their union members voted to strike beginning on September 22, 1919. It shut down half
22742-519: The summer and early fall of 1919. Unlike earlier race riots in U.S. history , the 1919 riots were among the first in which blacks responded with resistance to white attacks. Martial law was imposed in Charleston, South Carolina , where men of the U.S. Navy led a race riot on May 10. Five white men and eighteen black men were injured in the riot. An official investigation found that four U.S. sailors and one civilian—all white men—were responsible for
22908-404: The tension surrounding the idea of a possible communist takeover died down. From 1955 through 1959, the Supreme Court made several decisions which restricted the ways in which the government could enforce its anti-communist policies, some of which included limiting the federal loyalty program to only those who had access to sensitive information, allowing defendants to face their accusers, reducing
23074-463: The thousands of resident aliens arrested and deported. In July 1920, Palmer's once-promising Democratic Party bid for the U.S. presidency failed. Wall Street was bombed on September 16, 1920, near Federal Hall National Memorial and the JP Morgan Bank . Although both anarchists and communists were suspected as being responsible for the bombing, ultimately no individuals were indicted for
23240-497: The threat of a communist -inspired revolution in the U.S. became the overriding explanation for challenges to the social order , even for such largely unrelated events as incidents of interracial violence during the Red Summer of 1919. Fear of radicalism was used to explain the suppression of freedom of expression in the form of display of certain flags and banners. In April 1920, concerns peaked with J. Edgar Hoover telling
23406-610: The threat of communist revolution in the actions of organized labor , including such disparate cases as the Seattle General Strike and the Boston Police Strike and then in the bombing campaign directed by anarchist groups at political and business leaders. Fueled by labor unrest and the anarchist bombings, and then spurred on by the Palmer Raids and attempts by United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to suppress radical organizations, it
23572-467: The time. When she read Nikolai Chernyshevsky 's novel, What Is to Be Done? (1863), she found a role model in the protagonist Vera, who adopts a Nihilist philosophy and escapes her repressive family to live freely and organize a sewing cooperative . The book enthralled Goldman and remained a source of inspiration throughout her life. Her father, meanwhile, continued to insist on a domestic future for her, and he tried to arrange for her to be married at
23738-587: The trip, Abraham turned a deaf ear to their pleas. Desperate, Goldman threatened to throw herself into the Neva River if she could not go. Their father finally agreed. On December 29, 1885, Helena and Emma arrived at New York City's Castle Garden , the entry for immigrants. They settled upstate, living in the Rochester home which Lena had made with her husband Samuel. Fleeing the rising antisemitism of Saint Petersburg, their parents and brothers joined them
23904-577: The unemployment rate was higher than 20%, and "hunger demonstrations" sometimes gave way to riots. Goldman began speaking to crowds of frustrated men and women in New York City. On August 21, she spoke to a crowd of nearly 3,000 people in Union Square , where she encouraged unemployed workers to take immediate action. Her exact words are unclear: undercover agents insist she ordered the crowd to "take everything ... by force". But Goldman later recounted this message: "Well then, demonstrate before
24070-666: The world of your tyrannical institutions." Police and the Bureau of Investigation tracked the flyer to a print shop owned by an anarchist, Andrea Salcedo , but never obtained sufficient evidence for a prosecution. Evidence from Valdonoci's death, bomb components, and accounts from participants later tied both bomb attacks to the Galleanists. Though some of the Galleanists were deported or left the country voluntarily, attacks by remaining members continued until 1932. The American labor movement had been celebrating its May Day holiday since
24236-460: The worst violence. Leftists protesting the imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs and promoting the campaign of Charles Ruthenberg , the Socialist candidate for mayor, planned to march through the center of the city. A group of Victory Loan workers, a nationalist organization whose members sold war bonds and thought themselves still at war against all forms of anti-Americanism, tried to block some of
24402-651: The years 1947 to 1956. It also was the template for several state legislatures' loyalty acts, such as California's Levering Act . The House Committee on Un-American Activities was created during the Truman administration as a response to allegations by Republicans of disloyalty in Truman's administration. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and the committees of Senator Joseph McCarthy ( R. , Wisc. ) conducted character investigations of "American communists" (actual and alleged), and their roles in (real and imaginary) espionage, propaganda, and subversion favoring
24568-468: Was Henry Clay Frick , a fierce opponent of the union. When a final round of talks failed at the end of June, management closed the plant and locked out the workers, who immediately went on strike. Strikebreakers were brought in and the company hired Pinkerton guards to protect them. On July 6, a fight broke out between 300 Pinkerton guards and a crowd of armed union workers. During the twelve-hour gunfight, seven guards and nine strikers were killed. When
24734-399: Was stoned and drowned. Blacks responded violently when the police refused to take action. Violence between mobs and gangs lasted 13 days. The resulting 38 fatalities included 23 blacks and 15 whites. Injuries numbered 537 injured, and 1,000 black families were left homeless. Some 50 people were reported dead. Unofficial numbers were much higher. Hundreds of mostly black homes and businesses on
24900-618: Was "to take my place when I am gone." One of her first public talks in support of "the Cause" was in Rochester. After convincing Helena not to tell their parents of her speech, Goldman found her mind a blank once on stage. She later wrote, suddenly: something strange happened. In a flash I saw it—every incident of my three years in Rochester: the Garson factory, its drudgery and humiliation,
25066-548: Was a Lithuanian-born anarchist revolutionary , political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Kaunas , Lithuania (then within the Russian Empire ), to an Orthodox Lithuanian Jewish family, Goldman immigrated to the United States in 1885. Attracted to anarchism after
25232-508: Was a young girl, the Goldman family moved to the village of Papilė , where her father ran an inn. While her sisters worked, she became friends with a servant named Petrushka, who excited her "first erotic sensations". Later in Papilė she witnessed a peasant being whipped with a knout in the street. This event traumatized her and contributed to her lifelong distaste for violent authority. At
25398-485: Was at least partly a result of sexual frustration. Goldman's relationships with her elder half-sisters, Helena and Lena, were a study in contrasts. Helena, the oldest, provided the comfort the children lacked from their mother and filled Goldman's childhood with "whatever joy it had". Lena, however, was distant and uncharitable. The three sisters were joined by brothers Louis (who died at the age of six), Herman (born in 1872), and Moishe (born in 1879). When Emma Goldman
25564-416: Was characterized by exaggerated rhetoric, illegal searches and seizures , unwarranted arrests and detentions, and the deportation of several hundred suspected radicals and anarchists. In addition, the growing anti- immigration nativist movement among Americans viewed increasing immigration from Southern Europe and Eastern Europe as a threat to American political and social stability. Bolshevism and
25730-440: Was devastated. Goldman later wrote: "Whatever love she had had died with the young man to whom she had been married at the age of fifteen." Taube's second marriage was arranged by her family and, as Goldman puts it, "mismated from the first". Her second husband, Abraham Goldman, invested Taube's inheritance in a business that quickly failed. The ensuing hardship, combined with the emotional distance between husband and wife, made
25896-482: Was executed, Goldman withdrew from society and, from 1903 to 1913, lived at 208–210 East 13th Street, New York City. Scorned by her fellow anarchists, vilified by the press, and separated from her love, Berkman, she retreated into anonymity and nursing. "It was bitter and hard to face life anew," she wrote later. Using the name E. G. Smith, she left public life and took on a series of private nursing jobs while suffering from severe depression. The US Congress' passage of
26062-415: Was impotent; they became emotionally and physically distant. Before long he became jealous and suspicious and threatened to commit suicide should she leave him. Meanwhile, Goldman was becoming more engaged with the political turmoil around her, particularly the aftermath of executions related to the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago and the anti-authoritarian political philosophy of anarchism . Less than
26228-399: Was involved in the plot, police raided her apartment. Although they found no evidence, they pressured her landlord into evicting her. Furthermore, the attentat had failed to rouse the masses: workers and anarchists alike condemned Berkman's action. Johann Most, their former mentor, lashed out at Berkman and the assassination attempt. Furious at these attacks, Goldman brought a toy horsewhip to
26394-574: Was lionized as a freethinking "rebel woman" by admirers, and denounced by detractors as an advocate of politically motivated murder and violent revolution. Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues, including prisons , atheism , freedom of speech , militarism , capitalism , marriage, free love , and homosexuality. Although she distanced herself from first-wave feminism and its efforts toward women's suffrage , she developed new ways of incorporating gender politics into anarchism. After decades of obscurity, Goldman gained iconic status in
26560-478: Was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Goldman was imprisoned several times in the years that followed, for "inciting to riot" and illegally distributing information about birth control . In 1906, Goldman founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth . In 1917, Goldman and Berkman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring to "induce persons not to register" for the newly instated draft . After their release from prison, they were arrested—along with 248 others—in
26726-586: Was shot and died of his wounds; a second officer died of a heart attack. William Sidis was arrested. Later a mob attacked the Socialist headquarters. Police arrested 114, all from the Socialist side. Each side's newspapers provided uncritical support to their own the next day. In New York, soldiers in uniform burned printed materials at the Russian People's House and forced immigrants to sing the Star-Spangled Banner . Cleveland, Ohio saw
26892-443: Was stunned by the experience, overcome by "shock at the discovery that the contact between man and woman could be so brutal and painful." Goldman felt that the encounter forever soured her interactions with men. In 1885, her sister Helena made plans to move to New York in the United States to join her sister Lena and her husband. Goldman wanted to join her sister, but their father refused to allow it. Despite Helena's offer to pay for
27058-487: Was the Washington, D.C. , house of U.S. Attorney General Palmer, where the explosion killed the bomber, who (evidence indicated) was an Italian-American radical from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . Afterwards, Palmer ordered the U.S. Justice Department to launch the Palmer Raids (1919–21). He deported 249 Russian immigrants on the " Soviet Ark ", formed the General Intelligence Unit – a precursor to
27224-401: Was to simultaneously demand that Chinese (and other Asian) students politically support the American government yet avoid engaging directly in politics. The Second Red Scare profoundly altered the temper of American society. Its later characterizations may be seen as contributory to works of feared communist espionage, such as the film My Son John (1952), about parents' suspicions their son
27390-709: Was unconstitutional. In 1995, the American government declassified details of the Venona Project following the Moynihan Commission , which when combined with the opening of the USSR Comintern archives, provided substantial validation of intelligence gathering, outright spying, and policy influencing, by Americans on behalf of the Soviet Union, from 1940 through 1980. Over 300 American communists, whether they knew it or not, including government officials and technicians that helped in developing
27556-427: Was vilified in the press as the "high priestess of anarchy", while many newspapers declared the anarchist movement responsible for the murder. In the wake of these events, socialism gained support over anarchism among US radicals. McKinley's successor, Theodore Roosevelt , declared his intent to crack down "not only against anarchists, but against all active and passive sympathizers with anarchists". After Czolgosz
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