Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: Forerunner of the Civil Rights Movement

by Josie Cullinane
           

On January 30, 1906, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, an inquisitive and bright young woman, arrived at the Harlem Socialist Club to deliver her first public speech entitled, “What Socialism Will Do For Women.”  She was only 15 years old.  Flynn's family frequented the forum every week with their children in tow.  While Flynn's siblings wandered off to play, she would sit in on the meetings and engage in political discussion with the adults.  Flynn grew up in a household that encouraged debates and discussions about the oppression poor people faced.  Her father, Tom Flynn, was a civil engineer who was cheated out of his wages for summer contract work.  This put the family in a state of poverty. Following in the footsteps of her father, who considered himself a scholar in Marxism, and with encouragement from her mother, Annie Gurley, Flynn developed a passion for labor activism that ignited at a young age and lasted until her death in 1964.  As stated by Charlotte Holzkamper  in her 1980 M.A. thesis for the University of California, Flynn, “[p]ossessed of a grand way with words that held her audiences spellbound, Gurley quickly achieved legendary status and became a 'star' in the radical labor movement.”1 

Flynn was a sharp woman filled with passion to fight for working class rights.  In her early years of political activism she traveled with the only union in the country that would accept women and people of color as members.  This union was called the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).  Her work with the IWW included rallying, oration, non-violent protesting, and effective utilization media sources.  Flynn's leadership was a forerunner of tactics that would be later used in the mid-century when the civil rights movement mobilized masses of people to end segregation.  

Early Life
Flynn's Irish heritage carried a legacy of tenacity and leadership against oppression that she learned about as a child.  She explains in her autobiography,                      

The awareness of being Irish came to us as small children, through plaintive song and heroic story.  The Irish people fought to wrest their native soil from foreign landlords, to speak their native Gaelic tongue, to worship in the church of their choice, to have their own schools, to be independent and self-governing. As children, we drew in a burning hatred of British rule with our mother's milk.2

Through the example of her parents, Flynn identified herself as a political activist.  Tom Flynn worked in the quarries in Maine as a young man.  He took part in the Knights of Labor movement in 1875 with his peers as they fought against 10 hour days with such dangerous work. Flynn's father went to Dartmouth College to pursue a civil engineering degree, which he did not complete, but still worked as one for the rest of his life.  Flynn's mother, Annie, emigrated from Ireland during the 1840s with her family of 12 brothers and sisters.  After Annie's father died, she was left to raise seven of her siblings.  Helen Camp, author of Iron in Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left, describes her experience as contributing support for her daughter:                   

Possibly because of these responsibilities she became an ardent feminist, always encouraging her three daughters to assert themselves.  She approved of Elizabeth's radical political convictions and supported her activities.3

The family was plunged into poverty when Tom Flynn was cheated out of his wages for a summer.  Flynn's parents did not keep quiet about the reasons for their economic status, which ignited in Flynn a passion to change the corruption the working class faced.  Growing up in an environment that celebrated political debate and civil disobedience, Flynn found her identity and purpose in fighting for worker's rights.
           

Flynn's first arrest was with her father and other members of the Socialist Unity Club in New York in 1906.  The judge dismissed the case telling her to abandon the cause and focus on her studies.  Indeed, Flynn was expelled from Morris High School as a result of the media attention focused on her.  She spoke boldly to reporters explaining that she was a socialist agitator because her father had been cheated out of wages while working as a contracted civil engineer.  Reporters continued to flock to her, calling her “An East Side Joan of Arc,” in the September 1906 issue of Broadway Magazine.4 

Through this experience, Flynn quickly learned how to use the media to voice her cause, and would later use this tactic to her advantage in drawing attention to unfair labor practices around the country.
           
Work with the IWW          

After Flynn's first public speech in the Bronx Socialist Forum, she quickly gained popularity and attention from the media.  Camp explains, “[b]oth Tom Flynn and the radical labor movement knew a natural talent when they saw it, and Elizabeth's opportunities to speak to Socialist meetings and to groups of workers attempting to organize began to grow.”4

Her innate gift in oratory skills landed her gigs to travel around the United States with the IWW to organize strikes and recruit union members.  With a positive spotlight on this young girl from the Bronx traveling around the country, she worked with the union to represent workers.
           

The IWW union members, nick-named “Wobblies,” organized across the United States to help industrial laborers combat the poor wages and working conditions they faced.  During this time, the Wobblies membership grew to 50,000 worldwide.  This “One Big Union,”  comprised of lumberjacks, miners, dock workers, and textile workers, among others, and was involved in over 150 strikes including the Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909,  Lawrence textile strike of 1912, and the Paterson Silk Strike of 1913.  Carlos Schwantes, a Northwest historian describes the union's inclusion of all workers:
                                   

“At a time when nationally oriented trade unions concentrated their organizing efforts on skilled labor, the Wobblies emphasized the solidarity of all workers- men and women, whites and blacks, and even the Asians who were shunned by the Knights of Labor.”5
           
Flynn joined the IWW in 1906, belonging to the Mixed Local No. 179.  This union was comprised of a mixture of men and women with jobs ranging from seamstress to laborers.  Flynn was attracted to this organization because of it's commitment to the “immediate needs of the poorest, the most exploited, and the most oppressed workers.”6   Joyce Kornbluh, a labor historian, describes the IWW; “[w]ith their imaginative, colorful and world-famous strikes and free-speech fights, the IWW wrote many of the brightest pages in the annals of the working class emancipation.”7

In the summer of 1907, the union asked her to go to Bridgeport, Connecticut to support Tube Mill workers.  She would later be delegated by her union again and again to travel across the United States with the IWW to participate in mass meetings, strikes, and civil disobedience actions with workers.6  Flynn traveled to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Minnesota, Montana, and Washington.  Her organizing efforts across the country gave her the notoriety that would inspire thousands of workers to join in the cause of worker's rights.
           
Free Speech Fights – Civil Rights Connection
           
Flynn arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1908 to participate in the “Free Speech Fight” in Missoula, Montana.  This fight was spawned after a city ordinance outlawed meeting in public places.  This was viewed as a direct attack against the IWW who was organizing migratory workers in their demands for fair pay, and better working conditions.  The Wobblies in Missoula defied the city's ordinance, and called for members from around the country to convene there with them.  Hundreds poured in, climbed on soapboxes, and promptly were arrested.  They filled the jails to over capacity until the city finally gave in and lifted the ban.  Holzkamper explains that, “[t]he Free Speech struggle in the western states was a truly grassroots movement by migrant working men to protect their rights under the First Amendment from local ordinances (later proved unconstitutional) aimed specifically at halting IWW organizing.”7 This Free Speech Fight was a non-violent protest against an unlawful ordinance that started a legacy that would continue to be used by the Wobblies in later years.
           

Another Free-speech fight erupted in November of 1909 in Spokane, Washington when the city laid down a similar law against Wobblies.  Just like in Missoula, migratory loggers and railroad workers were upset because of poor working conditions and living quarters, low pay, and high turnover.  Flynn describes, “[t]hier wages were low, the work was hard, conditions unsanitary, and hours were long.”9  Employment agencies, also known as “labor sharks,” acted as a third party between the employer and employees to fill job positions.  The “labor sharks” got their nickname for their practice of charging a dollar for work, terminating their contract after a day or two, and sending the workers to another agency to get work.  This practice made the workers angry and eventually led to the establishment of the IWW in Spokane in the fall of 1908.  James Walsh headed the union, organizing meetings, lectures and a local newspaper called the Industrial Worker.8  
           

The establishment of the newspaper was significant, because it allowed the IWW to gain national attention of the situation in Spokane, which would lead to other free speech fights around the country.  The publication inspired free speech fights in Kansas City, Missouri, Aberdeen, Washington, Everett, Washington, Fresno, California, San Diego, California, and many more.  This domino effect was later paralleled during the mid-century civil rights movement when blacks challenged the discrimination they faced at lunch counters across the nation.  The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) distributed comic books teaching the philosophy of non-violent resistance, which inspired students to “sit-in” at lunch counters that refused to serve them.  This non-violent protesting tactic was started in Nashville, Tennessee, and launched a wave of anti-segregation sit-ins in dozens of cities across the South.  As the sit-ins spread, national attention on the issue of segregation fueled the already momentous civil rights campaign.   This event contributed to passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.14  In both circumstances, the publications worked well to gain the national attention that was needed to put pressure on lawmakers. 
           

The city heard the cries of the “labor sharks” and put into effect a ban on public meetings organized by the IWW.  “Battle lines were drawn,” as the Industrial Worker published a call for Wobbly members from around the country to, once again, defy a First Amendment violation9.  Wobblies set up rallies in front of the employment agency offices, informing people of the hiring practices and unfit working conditions. 
           

The Spokane fight proved to be consequently more brutal than that of Missoula.  Over 500 people were arrested in the first month.  Prisoners were beaten, fed poorly, and packed into jail cells.  For instance, 28 men were packed into a seven-by-eight feet jail cell.  When they complained, the officers turned the heat on to maximum level, injuring 18 prisoners and killing three.  The overflow of prisoners were kept in a nearby school.  When they would periodically march through town to shower at the jail, local citizens would be shocked by their emaciated sight and bring them food and tobacco.9
           

Flynn arrived in Spokane with the influx of Wobblies in December.  She was put in charge of the Industrial Worker after all of the editors had been arrested.  She took this opportunity to speak out about the situation in Spokane, and raise money for legal defense funds. 

The significance of a female managing the newspaper was later seen in the civil rights movement when female leaders, such as Diane Nash and Ella Baker, headed the FOR and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).14  The IWW and civil rights movement both saw the value in including women, because it reinforced their convictions in the fight for civil rights.
           

Anticipating her immanent arrest, Flynn chained herself to a lamppost, which gained major national publicity.  The police cut the chains and put her in jail anyway.  She was posted a $5,000 bail by the Women's Club of Spokane the next morning.  Flynn immediately returned to the Industrial Worker and wrote about the horrible conditions she found in the woman’s jail.  She spoke about the unsanitary conditions and the prostitution ring the sheriff was conducting with the female prisoners.  This outraged citizens, and the Spokane Women's club demanded, with success, the installation of matrons for the women’s cells.9
                 

Flynn used her position as the editor of the Industrial Worker to urge the public to pay attention to what was happening in Spokane.  Jo Ann Robinson, an English professor at Alabama State College during the mid-century civil rights movement, printed and organized the distribution of leaflets urging black people to refrain from riding the bus in protest of the unconstitutional arrests and trial against Rosa Parks.14  Following in the footsteps of Flynn, Robinson was integral in reaching out the masses to build compassion and mobilization for the discriminated passengers in Montgomery.  The leaflets that Robinson wrote led prevented thousands of people to participate in the boycott that eventually led to the city rule in the boycotters' favor.  Although the police eventually shut down the newspaper, Flynn's contribution to the Industrial Worker had already spread across the nation.  In both circumstances, Flynn and Robinson's work put enough pressure on each city to change the laws in their favor.
           

The IWW brought Flynn to Spokane to gain publicity, which she did with fervor when she was brought to court with an Italian man named Filigno with charges of “conspiracy to incite men to violate the law.”  Flynn came to court ready to defend herself in front of the jury.  Benjamin Kizer, a witness in the courtroom, describes Flynn's energy:
                                   

As it progressed, Elizabeth became increasingly impatient with her role of silent spectator while her lawyer made all the speeches. She began to horn in on the arguments with her indignant eloquence, and, when the evidence was in, she told her lawyer that he could make the first speech, but she would make the closing argument.  And did she pour it on!10

           
Flynn impressed the jury and was found “not guilty,” but Filigno, for whose innocence she pleaded, was found “guilty.”  The city agreed to a truce offered by the IWW, agreeing to release all of the prisoners, drop all pending trials, revoke the ordinance, and revoke the licenses of the “labor sharks”.  The IWW hall was reopened and the newspaper reinstated.  Later, a state investigation led to regulatory laws against the labor sharks.9 

This triumph was significant as it set a precedent for future battles for the next decades for civil rights violations against African Americans.  Holzkamper explains, “This was a non-violent, non-resistance, confrontation mass action, a clear forerunner of the tactics of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.”9  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn dedicated her life to the cause of civil liberties, such as free speech, prison conditions, labor rights, and the empowerment of women.  She showed through her experience that one person can move thousands, no matter what the societal norms may be.  Her life inspired civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, who would later organize the March on Washington, a massive mobilization amounting to 250,000 people rallying at the Lincoln Memorial in solidarity for “jobs and freedom.”  In A. Philip Randolph, Pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement, Paul Pfeffer describes Randolph’s inspiration from the IWW leaders, including Flynn:

In addition, Randolph became involved with political radicalism through exposure to the soapbox oratory of the pioneer black Socialist Hubert Harrison, as well as that of white radicals like Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, “Big Bill” Haywood, and Eugene Debs. The pre- World War I era marked the height of the Industrial Workers of the World’s public visibility, and the industrial unionism they advocated impressed Randolph as having great potential for unskilled black workers.  He thus began to carve out an ideological niche that would separate him from other black leaders.11

           
Flynn's work with the IWW ignited a century of battles for civil liberties that kept burning throughout the civil rights movement.   Her tactics with rallying, oration, non-violent protesting, and effective utilization media sources connected her with Americans in way that she was able to make triumphs early in her life.  Flynn died in 1964, amidst the civil rights movement.  Her obituary was featured on the front page of the New York Times and spans to several pages.  Although she was known as a radical woman, she was well respected for her commitment and leadership in a time when women didn't even have the right to vote yet. 

Footnotes:

Works Cited:

Camp, Helen C., Iron in Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left. Pullman, Washington: Washington State University Press, 1995. Print.
Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley. The Rebel Girl, An Autobiography. New York: International  Publishers, 1955. Print.
Holzkamper, Charlotte Ogilvie. “Rebel Girl, Radical Woman: A Biography of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.” MA Thesis. University of Southern California, May 1980. Print.
“IWW formally begins Spokane free-speech fight on November 2, 1909.” The Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History. History Ink, historylink.org, n.d., Web. 28        November 2010.
Kizer, Benjamin H. “Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.” Pacific Northwest Quarterly.  July 1966: 110-     112. Print.
Kornbluh, Joyce L. Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology, Chicago Illinios: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company. 1988. Print.
Pfeffer, Paula F. A. Philip Randolph, Pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. Baton Rouge and  London: Louisiana State University Press, 1990. Print
Schwantes, Carlos Arnaldo. The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History. Lincoln and  London: University of Nebraska Press, 1996. Print.
Williams, Juan, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965, New York: The Penguin Group, 1988, Print.