Born: 7 August 1890, United States
Died: 5 September 1964
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was an American labor leader, activist, and feminist. Flynn played a key role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union.
Flynn was a strong advocate for women’s rights, birth control, and suffrage. She lived in southwest Portland, Oregon, from 1926 to 1936 with birth control activist and suffragist Marie Equi. Despite health challenges, Flynn actively supported the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike. In 1939, she was re-elected to the ACLU board but was expelled in 1940 when the organization removed all Communist Party members due to the 1939 nonaggression pact between Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. She became the chairwoman of the Communist Party USA in 1961.
She passed away during a visit to the Soviet Union and received a state funeral, with processions in Red Square attended by over 25,000 people.