The Palmer Raids were a series of government crackdowns on suspected radicals and anarchists in 1919 and 1920. Following the raids, critics accused the U.S. government of violating key rights guaranteed by the Constitution, including the 4th, 5th, and 8th Amendments. In this lesson, students will determine whether people’s constitutional rights were violated during the Palmer Raids by analyzing testimony from Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, as well as an article from a socialist newspaper and excerpts from a book published by the National Popular Government League.
Image: Front page of the New York Tribune on January 3, 1920. From the Library of Congress.
