Highway Marker For Communist Born In Concord Not Initiated By City, Despite Claim: Docs

CONCORD, NH — City of Concord records show statements by a state commissioner about how a communist activist from Concord, who once advocated for overthrowing the United States government, received a memorial highway marker in Downtown Concord were inaccurate.

Sarah Stewart, the commissioner for the New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, was questioned about the decision to honor Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, “The Rebel Girl,” and founder of the American Civil Liberties Union in the mid-1930s who spent time in prison after being convicted of the Smith Act in the early 1950s, at Wednesday’s executive council meeting. Two Republican councilors, Dave Wheeler of Milford and Joe Kenney of Union, balked at the installation due to Flynn being an active member of the Communist Party, embracing Soviet-style governance at a time when the country was killing millions of its own people. Gov. Chris Sununu, also a Republican, joined Wheeler and Kenney in criticizing the decision to honor Flynn and questioned Stewart about the process.

Stewart said her office was not responsible for the marker stating the application came from the city of Concord.

“Our agency is not in the business of approving or denying the markers,” she was quoted as saying. “We check for factual accuracy and we help make sure that the text fits on the space allocated on the marker.”

After being questioned further, Stewart said the criteria for evaluation were handled by the Division of Historical Resources staff and the State Historical Resources Council.

But according to city of Concord documents, Stewart’s comments appear inaccurate.

The request for the marker was made to the Concord City Council by a state employee — Amy Dixon, a community preservation coordinator in Stewart’s department, on Sept. 12, 2022.

In a letter to councilors, Dixon touted the marker to councilors due to Flynn’s “accomplishments in leading America’s early 20th-century labor movement and for her support of civil liberties and women’s rights” and said the program would be administered by the state — via the Historical Highway Marker Program, Division of Historical Resources, and the Department of Transportation. She proposed installing the marker near where Flynn was born in 1890, on the grounds of the Merrimack County Superior Court on Montgomery Street, at its intersection with Court Street.

“The city would be under no financial obligation” to pay for the marker, showing further evidence the request was not made by the city but was being forwarded by the state.

Included in the request was a letter from Arnie Alpert, a retired leftwing activist, formerly with the American Friends Services Committee and a resident of Canterbury, and Mary Lee Sargent, a former history professor, and longtime peace and social justice advocate from Texas who now lives in Concord.

In their letter of support, both advocated Flynn’s marker noting she was “long considered one of the most significant radical leaders of the 20th Century,” that she was the subject of biographies, songs, and historical fiction, and had “a taste for literature, an interest in public affairs, and an unquenchable desire to make her mark on a world awash in injustice.” Neither mentioned Flynn’s membership in the Communist Party or her Smith Act conviction for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government by force.

According to the timeline of records by the city, the council approved forwarding the request at its October 2022 meeting to the city’s Heritage Commission.

The Heritage Commission met in mid-November 2022 with Dixon, Alpert, and Sargent and approved the marker installation.

Ward 3 City Councilor Jennifer Kretovic, who sits on the commission, according to meeting minutes, made a statement regarding Flynn’s association with the Communist Party, explaining that in the context of that time, the association with communism was for advocacy of social welfare. The minutes stated she wanted it noted, for the record, the association with communism at that time was very different from any association with the current political climate in Russia.

When asked about the comment, noting that Flynn supported the Soviet Union while millions of its people were being slaughtered, which was nothing like the Ukrainian invasion, Kretovic confirmed her point, noting Flynn's activism.

“She was an advocate for the little guy, fightin’ for the common man and worker rights,” she said.

Kretovic also confirmed the city’s lack of involvement with the marker saying it was “not the city’s” and belonged to the state. She said the request was not about the context of the sign but about its placement, which was requested by the state.

In December 2022, the city council approved the request for the marker on its Consent Agenda.

No councilors spoke up for or against the proposal.

Patch requested comment from Stewart about the inaccurate statement concerning the marker and also reached out to Shelly Angers, the public information officer for the department, repeatedly on Thursday, but did not receive a response. Dixon, who was CC’d on an email requesting comment, also did not respond to acknowledge her role in the marker request or to clarify Stewart’s inaccurate statement.

Sununu’s press office also did not respond to a request for comment.

Stewart, who worked on John McCain’s presidential campaigns and other advocacy initiatives as a consultant, was approved to lead the department in June 2018 after being nominated by the governor.

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