A.+Mitchell+Palmerjones

A. Mitchell Palmer Palmer claimed that Communist agents from Russia were planning to overthrow the American government. On 7th November, 1919, the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution, over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists were arrested.

In January, 1920, another 6,000 were arrested and held without trial.  These raids took place in several cities and became known as the Palmer Raids.  A. Mitchell Palmer and John Edgar Hoover found no evidence of a proposed revolution but large number of these suspects, many of them members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), continued to be held without trial.