“Red Ark” Sails – Anarchist Emma Goldman, 248 Others, Deported
The ship USAT Buford, labeled the “Red Ark,” embarked from New York City on this day, carrying 249 alleged alien radicals who were deported because of their alleged anarchist or radical pro-labor beliefs.
The most famous passenger was the anarchist, birth control advocate and anti-war activist Emma Goldman, who had been arrested June 15, 1917, for opposing the draft. She was accompanied by her companion, the anarchist Alexander Berkman (September 7, 1922). An estimated 184 of the 249 aliens on the Buford were members of the Union of Russian Workers, which had been one of the principal targets of the first Palmer Raids on November 7, 1919. All of the passengers were shipped to the Soviet Union.
At 4 a.m., with the temperature 20 degrees, a sharp wind, and deep snow on the ground, the deportees were ordered to begin boarding the Buford. Escorted by two uniformed officers, the deportees were cursed and threatened by people who had come to witness the event.
J. Edgar Hoover, then a young bureaucrat in the Bureau of Investigation who played a major role in the Palmer Raids, personally went to New York City to witness the sailing of the Buford. They met at the dock and, incredibly, Hoover asked her, “Haven’t I given you a square deal, Miss Goldman?” She replied, “We shouldn’t expect from any person something beyond his capacity.”
Also present for the departure of the Buford were several members of Congress, including Rep. Albert Johnson, Congressman from the state of Washington, and Chair of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. He was a strong opponent of immigration, an anti-Semite, and a favorite of the KKK.
The deportation was part of the post-World War I Red Scare that also included a second and larger set Palmer Raids that began on January 2, 1920.
Deported to the new Soviet Union along with the others, Goldman soon became disillusioned with the repression of civil liberties imposed by the Bolshevik leaders, and fled in December 1921. It is likely that she would have been arrested (for supporting striking workers, among other things) had she not left. Thus, in a two-year period Goldman was deported from the U.S. and fled the authorities in the Soviet Union.
TRIVIA: The Buford was later sold to a private company and, in 1924, rented to be the set in the silent film The Navigator, starring Buster Keaton. You can see film footage of the Buford in the 1920s, complete with the name on the stern, if you rent the great documentary film The Great Buster.
Read Adam Hochschild’s vivid story on the 1919 deportations in The New Yorker.
View a cartoon of the Sailing of the “Red Ark”: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Exhibition/eg29.jpg
Learn more at a timeline of Goldman’s life, 1900–1919: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Guide/chronology0119.html
Read: Vivian Gornick, Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life (2011)
Learn more: Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich, Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman (2012)
J. Edgar Hoover’s Memo Requesting Goldman’s Deportation (click both):
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Exhibition/eg27a.jpg; http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Exhibition/eg27b.jpg