Now You See It, Now You Don't: Marker For ‘Rebel Girl,’ Concord Communist Flynn, Removed

CONCORD, NH — A controversial state of New Hampshire marker for a labor leader and noted Communist Party activist, who was born in New Hampshire and lived a short period of her life in Concord, has been removed.

On Monday, the state of New Hampshire removed its highway marker for Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who was born in the city in 1890, after aback and forth between state officials and the city.

The controversy started on May 4, when two Republican Executive Council members, after seeing a press release about the marker, balked,due to her affiliation with the communist party. Gov. Chris Sununu, also a Republican, also questioned the decision to create a marker for Flynn, who was nicknamed “The Rebel Girl,” for her labor activism and radicalism. It was requested by two activists who gathered 30 signatures for the marker. The state’s Department of Natural & Cultural Resources maneuvered the marker through the approval process, including requests to the city to place it near her birthplace on Montgomery Street.

The city’s Heritage Commission approved the marker’s placement, finding it did not block the view of traffic, and the council approved that decision.

Also Read

• City Of Concord To NH: Marker For Concord Communist Is Yours, Take It
• Graham: Mr. Sununu, Tear Down This Marker!
• State Puts Blame For NH Marker Honoring Concord Communist On City
• Despite Claim City Did Not Initiate Marker For Concord Communist: Docs
• Why Did NH Approve A Historic Marker Honoring A Concord Communist?
• Sununu Signs Old Man Bill; Labor Leader Marker in Concord Criticized

As the controversy raged on, some on the Concord City Council received criticism about not rejecting the state’s request for a marker for Flynn in 2022, which would have stopped the process in its tracks.

Concord At Large City Councilor Amanda Grady Sexton said, per case law, cities and towns have no legal right to interfere with the wording of state signs.

“Our only ability is to determine if the sign interferes with traffic or sight lines,” she said. “Turns out, we didn't even have that right since it wasn't even our property.”

After the Executive Council meeting, there were incorrect comments from state officials, including Sununu and Sarah Stewart, the director of the NH DNCR, that it was the city’s marker.

Stewart wrote a letter to the city, again, insinuating councilors had a role in deciding its removal.

“I am reaching out to inform the city of the opportunity to reevaluate your approval of this marker,” she wrote. “The state is available to remove the marker at your request.”

But the city countered, it’s your marker.

Concord’s city solicitor, Jim Kennedy, sent a memo to Stewart, after being directed by the councilors, saying, “the city takes no position on the marker's removal, located on state property, and leaves such decision at the sole discretion of the state of New Hampshire.”

As more activists and journalists researched Flynn, the more they learned, including that she may have been a Nazi sympathizer.

One noted scholar wrote, “Flynn followed the (Communist Party) line through its many appalling twists and turns, including the Stalin-Hitler Pact, and then support for the Second World War, revelations by Khrushchev of the extent of Stalin's murderous crimes, and the Russian suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.”

According to historians, Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union, held similar views as the Nazi Party, who were, technically, national socialists. In 1939, Adolf Hitler and Stalin agreed to a nonaggression pact, saying they would not attack or invade each other’s countries. That pact was one of the reasons Flynn, and other communists, were expelled from the American Civil Liberties Union, the organization she helped cofound.

Nearly two years later, Hitler began invading the Soviet Union — leading Stalin to join with Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill later in the war to deter the Nazis.

Flynn was also not just a communist but the party’s chairwoman. In May 1946, she published a book, “Meet the Communists,” in which she appeared to celebrate the killing of government officials and others who did not resist the Nazis in occupied Eastern Europe at the time, writing, “the Communists' demand that they be executed or imprisoned is cheered by the people” — leading to the almost certain death of those who were trying to survive after the Iron Curtain fell.

Grady Sexton said Flynn was cheering the execution of possible collaborators while being a willing ally herself during the two years Nazi Germany and the Soviets agreed not to attack each other. This more profound revelation of Flynn’s history made her believe she was not Granite Stater worthy of commemoration.

“There’s no amount of feminism or labor activism that can redeem this person in my eyes,” Grady Sexton said. “We’re talking about someone who, when confronted by the biggest choosing of sides in the 20th century, chose Stalin and Hitler … not just a communist and a Stalinist, but a Nazi sympathizer as well.”

Some of the activists who supported its placement balked, saying there were specific criteria for marker removal that did not include people not agreeing with the content. But the sign was removed Monday.

“All policies and guidelines were followed in removing this controversial marker,” Benjamin Vihstadt, a spokesman for Sununu, said. “Through their public statements, the city of Concord made clear they were not advocating to keep the marker up. In their communications with the state, it was learned that the marker was located on state property, not city property as previously believed, and therefore the marker was removed (Monday).”

On Tuesday, two homemade signs were placed near the former marker saying, “Herstory is history too!” and “Learn Free or Die!” — which also included “No Erasure” and “The Rebel Girl.” A hashtag, #nhherstory, was included on both signs. But as of Tuesday afternoon, no one had commented using the hashtag.

State officials are expected to reveal a new process for markers shortly.

Have you got a news tip? Please send it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel. Follow the New Hampshire Patch Politics Twitter account @NHPatchPolitics for all our campaign coverage.