American Legion, Jefferson Post #15 - Records 1919-1988
By Jacob F. Lee
Filson Intern
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About |
Many of The Filson's recent additions to its twentieth
century collection are the records of local clubs and recreational
organizations. Consisting of meeting minutes, correspondence, and other
miscellaneous items, the collections are often routine in content.
The American Legion, Jefferson Post #15 collection features materials similar to the other clubs’ records, but unlike most of them, it also opens a window into a little-known aspect of Louisville’s history following the First World War. The Jefferson Post records show, first, that before and immediately after World War I a small, but active, community of political radicals operated in Louisville and, second, that the American Legion and the federal government felt threatened enough by this group to organize and take action against them.
In 1917, the United States
entered the World War, and
President Woodrow Wilson’s goal
of “100 percent Americanism”
combined with the Bolshevik
Revolution in Russia caused many
Americans to fear the spread of
communism. A backlash against
social and political radicalism
quickly spread within the United
States. When the war ended in
1918, the first Red Scare was well
under way, and anti-radical sentiment
swept across the nation.
With laws in place to suppress
dissent, the federal government
arrested and deported aliens,
dissidents, and radicals. However,
the Justice Department was not
the only body operating against
radicals and immigrants. The
American Legion endorsed the
government crackdown on radicals
and immigrants and was one
of the most active among nongovernmental
groups in investigating
suspected radicals. Although
much of the anti-radical activity
was limited to large cities, especially
New York and Chicago, and
areas with particularly active radical
communities, like the Pacific
Northwest and Wisconsin, The
Filson’s Jefferson Post #15
records 
indicate that the
American Legion and federal
agents conducted similar
operations in Louisville.
On July 8, 1919, at Jefferson
Post’s first meeting, the
founders laid out a strong
anti-radical and anti-alien platform.
Endorsing the language
of the national American
Legion caucus, the Jefferson
Post denounced Bolshevism and
un-Americanism in all forms and
demanded the deportation of all
“alien slackers,” those immigrants
who had not volunteered for
military service during the war. In
a statement given to The Courier-Journal on July 22, Jefferson Post
Commander Samuel H. McMeekin
further stated that the post would
not tolerate anarchism and that
“draft evaders and pro-Germanism
will be uncovered by the
American Legion in this city.”
The American Legion’s actions went beyond rhetoric and support of governmental actions. They also investigated Louisvillians with unpopular political views and condemned national figures, who they believed were either “Bolsheviks” or who had shown too little patriotism during the war. Jefferson Post focused many of its activities on the German-American community in the city, investigating numerous businessmen and even John Stilli, former pastor of St. John’s German Evangelical Church. In October 1919, due to American Legion protests and boycotts of Stilli and his followers, Stilli was forced to close the People’s Church of Louisville, which he founded after leaving St. John’s. When controversial lecturers and musicians visited Louisville, Jefferson Post often urged boycotts of their speeches and performances. In November 1919, the Legion protested an upcoming performance by Austrian violist Fritz Kreisler, who had briefly served in the Royal Austro-Hungarian Army. Due to the effects of Legion complaint, Kreisler cancelled his Louisville concert.
In 1919 and 1920,
Attorney General
A. Mitchell Palmer,
under advisement of
Bureau of Investigation
director J. Edgar
Hoover, authorized the arrest of
over 10,000 alleged communists,
socialists, anarchists, aliens, and
labor union officials. On January
2-3, 1920, the Justice Department
raided the homes and offices of
radicals across the country, arresting
thousands. Unknown to
historians, though, was that federal
agents made arrests in Louisville.
The Jefferson Post records only
hint at the arrests in a resolution
informing “the Government at
Washington [of] the unanimous
desire of all American Legion men
that these alien plotters be tried at
once and if convicted that they be
deported.” However, an examination
of local newspapers revealed
that the government arrested nineteen
radicals, mostly socialists, in
Louisville and then released all but
three – Albert Gander, Ignatius
Hager, and Ferdinand Zimmerer.
It is presently unknown if Gander,
Hager, and Zimmerer were convicted
and deported, but Jefferson
Post had little doubt that they
were in fact “alien plotters.”
Although radicalism in Louisville
seems to have ended with the
federal raids, the American Legion
continued to be diligent in its
investigation and criticism of suspected
“Bolsheviks.” One of the
last references to radicals in the
Jefferson Post collection was from
1924, when activist Scott Nearing
visited Louisville. Nearing gave
a speech criticizing the inequities
of capitalism and condemning
sedition laws across the country.
Jefferson Post passed a resolution
shortly thereafter denouncing
Nearing’s statements as “radical”
and “dangerous,” concluding, “We
believe in free speech but not the
abuse of free speech.”
The importance of the Jefferson Post records is not their in depth documentation of Louisville’s radical community and the efforts taken to squash it. Instead, the importance lies in what it suggests about this era in Louisville history. Through this collection, the outline of a larger story is revealed. Further investigation of Louisville newspapers and Justice Department records in the National Archives might reveal a more nuanced understanding of the anti-radical, anti-immigrant sentiments following World War I, but the American Legion, Jefferson Post #15 Records offers an initial insight into the first Red Scare in Louisville.
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