New Hampshire Is Sued Over Removal of Marker Dedicated to Communist Party Leader

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

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

Referred to as “The Insurgent Woman” for her fiery speeches, Flynn was a founding father of the American Civil Liberties Union and advocated for ladies’s voting rights and entry to contraception. The marker stated she joined the Communist Get together in 1936 and was despatched to jail in 1951. She was one in every of many social gathering members prosecuted “below the infamous Smith Act,” the marker stated, which forbade makes an attempt to advocate, abet or train the violent destruction of the U.S. authorities.

Flynn later chaired the Communist Get together of the US. She died at 74 in Moscow throughout a go to in 1964.

The marker had drawn criticism from two Republican members of the Govt 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 referred to as for a evaluate of the historic marker course of. It was eliminated in session with Sununu, in keeping with Sarah Crawford Stewart, commissioner of the Division of Pure and Cultural Assets.

However “the marker was illegally eliminated based mostly on ideological issues that fly within the face of the historic marker program’s goal,” stated plaintiff Mary Lee Sargent, an American historical past trainer who, together with activist Arnold Alpert, filed the lawsuit in opposition to the state in superior court docket.

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 historic 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 in search of touch upon the lawsuit have been despatched to all three, in addition to to the New Hampshire lawyer basic’s workplace, which represents the state and its departments in litigation.

Beneath 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 keeping with the state Division of Historic Assets. The division and a historic sources advisory group consider the standards.

The lawsuit stated that insurance policies and tips utilized by the division to run this system are invalid as a result of their adoption wasn’t in keeping with necessities of the Administrative Procedures Act. The lawsuit stated Stewart did not even observe the rules, which require the division to seek the advice of with an advisory historic sources council earlier than markers are “retired.”

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