The decades leading up to the Bombing on Wall Street had been marked by a great deal of

social unrest and anticapitalistic agitation.

In 1919, there was a coordinated bombing attack on seven eastern cities and one of those bombs

targeted the Attorney General of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer.

It really stoked fears that this was the beginning of a much

broader attack on capitalism in the country.

There was a huge clamoring from the public to take more drastic action.

The Palmer Raids were a series of raids to arrest and deport individuals suspected of

radical activities against the government.

These raids were conducted across the country in November of 1919 and January of 1920.

They arrested Emma Goldman, and a number of communist sympathizers and activists.

It was a fairly violent affair.

It became clear that a number of the people arrested didn’t even belong to a radical organization.

Some of them were American citizens.

They were held under arrest without warrant.

There was a real backlash to the civil liberties violations

that many perceived these raids constituted.