1.) Bell Work:
“Communists seized power in Russia in 1917 and threatened to spread their revolution to other countries. When a wave of strikes hit the United States in 1919, some Americans feared this was the start of a Communist revolution. In 1919, anti-Communist hysteria led Attorney General Palmer to conduct raids against radicals accused of plotting to overthrow the government. Thousands were arrested, and several hundred immigrant radicals were deported. The hysteria affected immigrants in other ways as well. Two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were accused of committing murder during a robbery to obtain funds for an anarchist revolution. Despite insufficient evidence, they were convicted and later executed in 1927.
The ‘Red Scare’ and the Sacco and Vanzetti trial contributed to the rise of nativism – a dislike of foreigners which led to new restrictions on immigration in the early 1920s. The migration of African Americans from the South to the Northern cities during World War I led to increased racial tensions after the war. The Ku Klux Klan, dead for decades, revived in the 1920s. The Klan was hostile to immigrants, Catholics, Jews, and African Americans.”
a.) Describe what is happening in 1917 that seems to be frightening many Americans.
b.) Based on the excerpt what can we identify as some of the potential motives behind the anti-Communist hysteria led Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer in 1919?
c.) Imagine you were a member of the U.S. government living sometime in between 1917 and 1920. How would you have handled the “Red Scare”? Would you have given into the fear or would you work to stop the spread of mass hysteria? Please explain your answer.
2.) Discuss Sacco & Venzetti trial. Annotate & answer the questions on the Sacco & Venzetti worksheet.