New Hampshire Honored a ‘Rebel Girl.’ Then It Found Out She Was a Communist.
In 1953, Ms. Flynn was convicted under the Smith Act of conspiring to teach and advocate the forcible overthrow of the United States government. She was sentenced to three years in prison. Ms. Flynn received a state funeral in Moscow when she died in 1964, and her obituary, describing her as the head of the American Communist Party, appeared on the front page of The New York Times.
“Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s role in history is well established. Her significance as a historical figure is not in doubt,” Arnie Alpert, a community activist in New Hampshire who led the initiative for Ms. Flynn’s marker, said in an interview. “But what is not well known is that she was born in Concord.”
Mr. Alpert and his friend Mary Lee Sargent first petitioned the state Division of Historical Resources for a historical marker in 2021. The state ordered the plaque in March 2022, and it was approved by Concord’s City Council in December.
The marker was installed on the corner believed to have once been the site of Ms. Flynn’s childhood home, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 1. Two days later, members of New Hampshire’s executive council, a state body of four Republicans and one Democrat, debated the issue of the monument. Joseph Kenney, a Republican council member, described it as “a slap in the face to the state of New Hampshire and the city of Concord.”
On May 15, it was removed.
Mr. Kenney said in an interview that he hoped removing the plaque would teach children a valuable lesson about the history of communism in the United States, and the time when it threatened “to take the world over and change our way of life.”
Source: The New York Times
