New Hampshire is sued over elimination of marker devoted to Communist Party chief

CONCORD, N.H. — Supporters of a former historic marker devoted to a feminist and labor activist from New Hampshire who additionally led the U.S. Communist Party sued the state Monday, saying officers violated a legislation round administrative procedures and will put it again up.

The inexperienced and white signal describing the lifetime of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was put in May 1 in Concord near the place she was born Aug. 7, 1890. It was one among greater than 275 throughout the state that describe individuals and locations, from Revolutionary War troopers to modern sports figures. But it was taken down two weeks after it went up.

Known as “The Rebel Girl” for her fiery speeches, Flynn was a founding father of the American Civil Liberties Union and advocated for girls’s voting rights and entry to contraception. The marker mentioned she joined the Communist Party in 1936 and was despatched to jail in 1951. She was one among many occasion members prosecuted “under the notorious Smith Act,” the marker mentioned, which forbade makes an attempt to advocate, abet or train the violent destruction of the U.S. authorities.

Flynn later chaired the Communist Party of the United States. She died at 74 in Moscow throughout a go to in 1964.

The marker had drawn criticism from two Republican members of the Executive Council, a five-member physique that approves state contracts, judicial nominees and different positions, who argued it was inappropriate, given Flynn’s Communist involvement. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu agreed and known as for a evaluate of the historic marker course of. It was eliminated in session with Sununu, in line with Sarah Crawford Stewart, commissioner of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

But “the marker was illegally removed based on ideological considerations that fly in the face of the historical marker program’s purpose,” mentioned plaintiff Mary Lee Sargent, an American historical past instructor who, together with activist Arnold Alpert, filed the lawsuit in opposition to the state in superior court docket.

PHOTOS: New Hampshire is sued over elimination of marker devoted to Communist Party chief

The lawsuit says that state officers violated the state’s Administrative Procedures Act, its historic markers program and the plaintiffs’ rights to due course of by interfering with Sargent’s and Alpert’s rights “to duly petition for the approval and erection of a historical marker” close to Gurley Flynn’s birthplace.

The criticism particularly names Secretary of State David Scanlan as consultant of New Hampshire, together with Stewart and Transportation Commissioner William Cass. Messages looking for touch upon the lawsuit had been despatched to all three, in addition to to the New Hampshire lawyer normal’s workplace, which represents the state and its departments in litigation.

“We will review the complaint and respond as appropriate in court in due course,” mentioned Michael Garrity, a spokesperson for the lawyer normal’s workplace.

Under the present course of, any individual, municipality or company can counsel a marker so long as they get 20 signatures from New Hampshire residents. Supporters should draft the marker’s textual content and supply footnotes and copies of supporting documentation, in line with the state Division of Historical Resources. The division and a historic sources advisory group consider the factors.