Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World . Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a visible proponent of womens rights, birth control, and womens suffrage. She joined the Communist Party USA in 1936 and late in life, in 1961, became its chairwoman. She died during a visit to the Soviet Union, where she was accorded a state funeral.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1890. The family moved to New York in 1900, where she was educated at the local public schools. Her parents introduced her to socialism. When she was only sixteen she gave her first public speech, What Socialism Will Do for Women, at the Harlem Socialist Club. As a result, she felt compelled to speak out for social change, making a decision she later regretted, to leave Morris High School before graduation.
Source: Wikipedia