Police, Park District Clash over Activist, Anarchist

By Margaret Lyons in News on May 14, 2004 10:03PM

The Chicago Police have never been huge fans of Lucy Parsons, and more than 60 years after her death, relations remain tense. Despite vehement opposition from the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No.7, Chicago Park District officials went ahead with their plan Wednesday to name a park at 4712 West Belmont after Parsons.
Parsons relocated to Chicago in 1873, where she became a famous activist and anarchist who advocated labor reform, believed the organizational structure of government served only to repress workers, and wrote extensively on the role of the "unemployed, disinherited and the miserable." Parsons was also linked to the Haymarket bombings of 1866, which killed eight police officers; for his alleged affiliation with the riots, Parsons’s husband Albert was hanged along with four other radicals. Parsons continued to be an outspoken critic of government, and legend has it that a Chicago police official once said she was "more dangerous than a thousand rioters."
Learn about Lucy Parsons , the Chicago Park District, the Haymarket Affair, and the difference between "hanged" and "hung."