A legal battle is brewing in New Hampshire over a historical marker erected alongside a highway to commemorate a feminist and labor organizer, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, which was taken down at the behest of Governor Sununu just weeks after being put up.

In May 2023, a historical highway marker for Flynn was installed near where she was born at Concord in 1890. Yet two Republicans on the state’s Executive Council complained about the marker because Flynn advocated for communism, and it was removed within weeks. 

Mr. Sununu agreed with council Republicans and responded by having the marker removed and ordering a review of the process that led to its installation.

The people that petitioned to have a historical marker created for Flynn in New Hampshire are now suing to have it put back in place, and a court at Concord is set to decide whether to dismiss the suit, as the state has requested.

Flynn was an activist best known as a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, an advocate for women’s rights, and the chairwoman of the Communist Party USA between 1961 and 1964. 

In the 1950s, Flynn was convicted under the Smith Act, a federal law banning advocacy of the violent overthrow of the government that was used to imprison communist and socialist leaders in America.

Upon her release, Flynn published “My Life as a Political Prisoner: The Rebel Girl Becomes,” which detailed her experience in a federal prison in West Virginia.

Flynn died in the Soviet Union in 1964 and was given a state funeral in Red Square by the government. She is buried, though, at Chicago, alongside her husband Eugene Dennis and the men sentenced to death in the Haymarket Affair.

The individuals behind the petition to create a historical marker, an American history instructor, Mary Lee Sargent, and an activist, Arnold Alpert, allege in the suit that “the marker was illegally removed based on ideological considerations that fly in the face of the historical marker program’s purpose.”

Ms. Sargent and Mr. Alpert argue that officials violated state law around administrative procedures when they removed the marker and are seeking to have it reinstalled.

The state is now looking to have the suit against it dismissed, with Attorney General John Formella arguing that Ms. Sargent and Mr. Alpert lack legal standing to bring the case because they suffered no harm.

“Plaintiffs are admirers of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn,” Mr. Formella wrote in the state’s response. “But not everyone shares Plaintiffs’ fondness for Ms. Flynn.”

Mr. Formella went on to note Flynn’s role as an “ardent communist” and said that Flynn “may be an influential historical figure,” but she “is an undeniably controversial one, as well.”

“Whether the people of New Hampshire want her Concord birthplace memorialized is a question of politics, not justice,” Mr. Formella wrote.

In the fight over the marker, a right-to-know request filed with the state disclosed that Mr. Sununu had the marker removed in the middle of the night on May 15, according to the Concord Monitor.

“The Governor had DOT remove the marker in the middle of the night last night,” a text from the state Division of Historical Resources director, Ben Wilson, reads.

The removal of the marker drew the attention of the modern Communist Party of the United States of America, which said in a statement that “If Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s life is important enough to hide, then her life is important enough to know.”

“Why is a woman whose life was dedicated to justice, human rights and free speech so threatening?” the party wrote. “So much for GOP objections to ‘cancel culture.’”

Neither the governor’s office nor the group that brought the case immediately responded to a request for comment from the Sun.