1919, America was a milieu of tension. Communist hysteria swamped through the public and caused mass hysteria. Racial riots had broken out in major cities. America seemed on the brink of disaster. How did America, after winning such a great victory in the Great War, fall into this state? How did the Red Scare and the race riots chill America so deeply? The roots of the Red Scare can be found in the Russian Revolution, while the roots of the race riots can be found in blacks who served in the Great War.
Radical sentiments were spreading among workers. People were calling for permanent nationalization of the coal mines and railroads; west coast longshoremen refused to supply the White Russians in their attempts to stop the Bolsheviks; one million Americans vote for Eugene Debs, the socialist candidate, in the 1920 election. The public’s communist fears became known as the Red Scare. There are many reasons why the Red Scare gripped so many Americans. After Communist radicals overthrew the Russian government and established the Soviet Union, the world now contained a great communist presence. The fact that the Russians were also supporting communist revolutions all over the world didn’t alleviate any nation’s fears. In 1919, the American Communist Party was founded, with many members from Russia and European descent. Americans immediately became fearful of the Communist Party. Were they going to overthrow the government? Are they supported by the Russians? Paranoia struck America, especially when the small group of radicals within the Communist Party, most of who were anarchists, began bombing numerous places. With the rise of the Russian Communist Party, the birth of the American Communist Party, and the anarchist bombings, though infrequent, the American public was immobilized with fear. Yet, many of their fears were unjustified. Most members of the American Communist Party did not seek to overthrow the government. Instead, they sought to influence the workers minds through education and strikes. The American Socialist Party was also severely fractured by the Russian Revolution, contrary to what many believed. The radical groups, of both the Communist Party and Socialist Party, were very small in number. Yet the bombings they did gripped America with fear; it seemed like the radicals were going to overthrow the government. At the height of fear for radicalism and the Red Scare, the American Legion was born. The Legion made sure that any seditious people or organizations were pointed out. Yet, the hysteria seemed to halt after the Palmer raids. The Palmer raids invaded houses in more than thirty-three cities in an attempt to uncover radical plots, and ultimately failed, the Americans began to question the validity of their hysteria. The rise of the Red Scare was built upon excessive paranoia, catalyzed by the recent Bolshevik uprising, formation of the American Communist Party, and the radical bombings. Yet, the paranoia lacked logic and reasoning, thus it collapsed.
Race riots in America post-World War I can see its roots traced back most recently to the fact that black Americans helped fight on behalf of America during World War I. The 400,000 blacks that returned home from the war expected to be treated as first class citizens; after all, they had just sacrificed their life for their country. Many even speculated on the birth of the “New Negro”. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Contrary to giving blacks jobs, managers fired blacks from their jobs to make way for the returning white servicemen. This forced blacks to find low wage jobs. The fact that conditions for blacks did not improve socially greatly upset many of them. Lynch mobs in the south even targeted many black veterans that refused to be called the regular derogatory names. Tensions escalated as blacks expected to be treated as first class citizens and as whites were bewildered as to why blacks expected to be treated as first class citizens. Whites also resented having to live so close to black neighborhoods. When the veterans returned home, many found the cities to become very crowded. These crowded conditions angered many whites, who refused to stoop so low as to live next to the blacks. Border tensions reached the breaking point in Chicago in July, 1919. White mobs invaded black neighborhoods, attacking everything and everyone. The expectations of the blacks to return home as equal citizens was met with the same white racism that had existed before the war, thus cooking up an atmosphere of great pressure that was bound to explode.
The results of World War I, such as the Bolshevik Revolution and the return of black servicemen, brought about the post-war tension felt throughout America. For the Red Scare, it seemed as if the Communist Party was going to overthrow the government. For the racial riots, the vision of the “New Negro” was neither accepted nor even contemplated by whites. Yet as America progressed into the future, these tensions would dissolve, and once again, it would have to unite to defeat the same enemy that it had faced in the first Great War: Germany, and its new leader, Adolf Hitler.
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