Resources, Radicals, and Reactionaries: The First Red Scare in Oklahoma, 1919-1920.

摘要

The purpose of this study is to identify and explore the major events of the First Red Scare in Oklahoma, and how the distinct resources contained in the state, namely coal and oil, defined its Red Scare experience. This work will also cover responses by the local government and populace to provide a broader understanding of this major event in Oklahoma history. After the First World War reactions against radicalism, labor movements, and social disturbances appeared in heightened form. These reactions manifested themselves as an outgrowth of paranoia and fear resulting in the detention, deportation, and arrest of thousands of individuals across the United States. From coast to coast, labor disputes, strikes, and anti-government sentiment were seen as tantamount to treason, prompting an overly harsh reaction by the public and government officials. Oklahoma remained no exception and meted out its own punitive reactions against suspected radicals. The coal and oil producing areas especially served as hubs of labor discontent and reaction and helped plunge the state deeper into the bowels of Red Scare hysteria. After the state severely overreacted to labor disturbances in Oklahoma and the national government overplayed the threat of radicals across the country, the First Red Scare evaporated.;This study traces the course the first Red Scare took in Oklahoma, the response by the local government, and the response by the local populace and media during the critical years of 1919-1920. To that end, special attention is paid to the town of Drumright and the coal mining regions in the state, as these areas were situated near the nexus of resource production for their respective areas. Newspapers from the time are consulted, including the Drumright Derrick, the McAlester News Capital, Durant Weekly News, the Daily Oklahoman, Tulsa World, Harlow's Weekly, and others. Primary sources include the papers of Governor JBA Robertson located at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, papers, clippings and vertical files from the Oklahoma History Center, congressional representative files from the Carl Albert Center at OU, US House and Senate hearings, published autobiographies, manuscripts, nation-wide papers including the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere.