Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
American politician (1890-1964)
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was an American labor leader and feminist. In the early years of her activist career, she was an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (known also as the IWW or the Wobblies). During World War I she founded the Workers Defense Union (WDU), to advocate for anyone arrested and imprisoned for violating the Espionage Act while championing the cause of labor. In 1920, Flynn helped found the American Civil Liberties Union. She joined the Communist Party USA in 1936 during the Popular Front period and became one of its most recognized and beloved leaders.
In 1940, in a highly controversial move, the ACLU expelled her from its executive committee because she was a Communist, despite her reputation as a longtime advocate of free speech. She was elected the first woman chair of the Party in 1961. After her passport was revoked because of her Party membership, she appealed successfully for its reinstatement. She died during a visit to the Soviet Union, where she was accorded a state funeral with processions in Red Square attended by more than 25,000 people.
Background
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born on August 7, 1890, in Concord, New Hampshire, the daughter of Annie (Gurley) and Thomas Flynn.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Elizabeth Gurley Flynn” as american politician (1890-1964). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american politician (1890-1964). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q463265. VIAF identifies the subject as 32154764. The Library of Congress control number is n50003598. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890, 1964, 1920 and 1936.
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This entry incorporates text from “Elizabeth Gurley Flynn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.