Dates: August 7, 1890 - September 5, 1964
Occupation: orator; labor organizer, IWW organizer; socialist, communist; feminist; ACLU founder; first woman to head the American Communist Party
Also Known as: "Rebel Girl" of Joe Hill's song
About Elizabeth Gurley Flynn:
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn became active at 15 in socialist and IWW (Industrial Workers of the World, the "Wobblies"), and helped organize strikes, notably in Lawrence, Massachusetts. She stood against World War I, and after escaping a charge of espionage for her opposition, helped organize for free speech rights, including helping to found the ACLU.
Just before World War II, after withdrawing from public life for a few years for health reasons, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn joined the American Communist Party. She was expelled from the ACLU and its board for her party membership. After the war, she continued to work with the communist party, becoming its first woman head a few years before her death on her first trip to the USSR.
