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First Red Scare
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{{short description|Early 20th-century American historical event}} {{about|the events of 1918β1920|general information about the phenomenon|Red Scare}} {{Infobox event | title = First Red Scare | partof = the [[Revolutions of 1917β1923]] | image = Step by step greene.jpg | image_size = 180px | caption = "Step by Step" by Sidney Greene (1919) | duration = January 21, 1919 β April 1, 1920 | location = [[United States]] | cause = [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917, [[1919 United States anarchist bombings]], and [[Green Corn Rebellion]] | participants = {{ubl|[[Lee Slater Overman]]|[[Josiah O. Wolcott]]|[[Knute Nelson]]|[[A. Mitchell Palmer]]|[[J. Edgar Hoover]]}} | accused = {{ubl|[[Luigi Galleani]]|[[Eugene V. Debs]]|[[Emma Goldman]]}} | outcome = *[[Warren G. Harding]] became President in 1920 with a Republican landslide *Long-term constraint of [[Labor history of the United States|labor]] and left-wing movements in the United States<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6vwvCgAAQBAJ&q=accomplished+much+of+what+employers+had+sought&pg=PA559 |quote=... the effects on the labor movement were devastating ... [Palmer] had accomplished much of what employers had sought in the immediate post-war era ... Many labor officials had been jailed or deported; and many industrial unions had been wiped out of existence. |title=Encyclopedia of American Social Movements<!--Can this be replaced with {{cite encyclopedia}} and a title given referring to the entry?--> |editor-first=Immanuel |editor-last=Ness |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |page=559|isbn=9781317471899 }}</ref> | reported deaths = {{circa}} 165 (1919) | arrests = {{circa}} 3,000 (1920) | convicted = {{circa}} 500 people expelled | inquiries = {{ubl|[[Overman Committee]] (1918β1919)|[[Palmer Raids#Aftermath|Palmer Trials]] (1920)}} }} {{Campaignbox First Red Scare}} {{Campaignbox Revolutions of 1917β1923}} {{Socialism US}} {{Anarchism US}} {{Anti-communism|History}} The '''first Red Scare''' was a period during [[History of the United States (1918β1945)|the early 20th-century history of the United States]] marked by a widespread fear of [[Far-left politics|far-left]] movements, including [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevism]] and [[anarchism]], due to real and imagined events; real events included the Russian 1917 [[October Revolution]], [[German Revolution of 1918β1919]], and [[1919 United States anarchist bombings|anarchist bombings in the U.S.]] At its height in 1919β1920, concerns over the effects of radical political agitation in American society and the alleged spread of [[socialism]], [[communism]], and [[Anarchism in the United States|anarchism]] in the [[Labor history of the United States|American labor movement]] fueled a general sense of concern. The scare had its origins in the [[Ultranationalism|hyper-nationalism]] of [[United States home front during World War I|World War I]] as well as the Russian Revolution. At the war's end, following the October Revolution, American authorities saw the threat of communist revolution in the actions of [[Trade union|organized labor]], including such disparate cases as the [[Seattle General Strike]] and the [[Boston police strike|Boston Police Strike]] and then in the [[1919 United States anarchist bombings|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]] [[Alexander Mitchell Palmer|A. Mitchell Palmer]] to suppress radical organizations, it was characterized by exaggerated rhetoric, [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|illegal searches and seizures]], [[Arrest warrant|unwarranted arrests]] and detentions, and the [[deportation]] of several hundred suspected radicals and anarchists. In addition, the growing anti-[[immigration]] [[Nativism (politics)|nativist]] movement among Americans viewed increasing immigration from [[Southern Europe]] and [[Eastern Europe]] as a threat to American political and social stability. Bolshevism and the threat of a [[Communism|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 [[Mass racial violence in the United States|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 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.
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