Library of Congress
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964) was an organizer and lecturer for the IWW. She played an active role in the IWW's free speech campaigns in Spokane (1910) and Missoula, Mont. (1912), the Lawrence textile strike (1912), the Paterson silk strike (1913), and the Mesabi Range strike (1916). She was also prominently involved in the efforts to save Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti and to free California labor organizers Thomas Mooney and Warren Billings. A founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920, Flynn remained a member of its board of directors until she was expelled in 1940 because of her membership in the communist party. She was later tried and convicted under the Smith Act for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government and served two years in prison (1955-57).