ABSTRACT
Hysterical fear of foreigners spawned by the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, formation of the international communist party comintern, and the establishment of the Communist Party of the United States in 1919 epitomized the 1919–1920 "red scare" in the United States when wholesale and unconstitutional deportations of aliens occurred. Many people in the nation perceived the Communist threat as an attack on American institutions by foreign radicals. In April 1917, the United States entered World War I, and although President Woodrow Wilson curbed a Justice Department proposal to try civilians in military tribunals, he signed into law the new Espionage Act of 1917 under which the government arrested, convicted, and later deported Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and others. In some cities police raided meeting halls, and in most communities they invaded homes to make arrests without warrants.
