During World War II, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn advocated women's economic equality and supported the war effort, even working for Franklin D. Roosevelt's reelection in 1944.
After the war ended, as anti-communist sentiment grew, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn again found herself defending free speech rights for radicals. In 1951, Flynn and others were arrested for conspiracy to overthrown the United States government, under the Smith Act of 1940. She was convicted in 1953 and served her prison term in Alderson Prison, West Virginia, from January 1955 to May 1957.
Out of prison, she returned to political work. In 1961, she was elected National Chairman of the Communist Party, making her the first woman to head that organization. She remained chairman of the party until her death.
For a long time a critic of the USSR and its interference in the American Communist Party, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn traveled to the USSR and Eastern Europe for the first time. She was working on her autobiography. While in Moscow, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was stricken ill, her heart failing, and she died there. She was given a state funeral in Red Square.
In 1976, the ACLU restored Flynn's membership posthumously.
The song "Rebel Girl," written by Joe Hill, was written in honor of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
By Elizabeth Gurley Flynn:
Women in the War. 1942.
Women's Place in the Fight for a Better World, 1947.
I Speak My Own Piece: Autobiography of the "Rebel Girl." 1955.
The Rebel Girl: An Autobiography: My First Life (1906-1926). 1973.
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