Ishmael Flory spent his life fighting against social injustices. Decades before the civil rights movement, Mr. Flory organized civil rights demonstrations while in college and protested against a lynching in Nashville, Tenn.
“He was involved in all kinds of struggles,” said Ted Pearson, a longtime friend and campaign organizer for the Communist Party, the ticket on which Mr. Flory ran for Illinois governor in 1972. “There was no problem too small for him to be concerned with.”
Mr. Flory, 96, a political and civil rights activist and union organizer, died Wednesday, Feb. 4, in Kindred Hospital-Chicago North.
Born the youngest of nine children in Lake Charles, La., Mr. Flory moved with his family in 1918 to Los Angeles, where he graduated from Jefferson High School. After a few years at the University of California at Los Angeles, Mr. Flory left college to work in real estate and as a Pullman porter. Some of his earliest exposure to union organizing was as a member and executive secretary of a Pullman porters’ union. He also was an active member of the Dining Car Employees Union when he became a dining-car chef.
After receiving an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1933, Mr. Flory enrolled in a master’s degree program at Fisk University in Nashville. His time there was short-lived when he was expelled for organizing civil rights demonstrations and protests against the lynching of a Nashville teenager.
Mr. Flory’s activism in college set the tone for the rest of his life. After moving to Chicago in 1939, he served as head of the Joint Council of Dining Car Employees and as an organizer for the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union, which later merged with the United Steelworkers of America.
Before the civil rights movement, Mr. Flory worked closely with Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois and other leaders during the 1940s and 1950s to address the struggles faced by black Americans. He was elected president of the National Negro Congress. And in 1960, he founded the African-American Heritage Association.
He also was the founding member of the National Alliance to End Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR), an organization that grew out of the campaign he led to free activist Angela Davis when she was charged with murder.
In addition to his 1972 and 1976 gubernatorial bids, Mr. Flory ran for the U.S. Senate in 1974 and 1984 on the Communist ticket.
“He influenced thousands of people,” Pearson said. “He may not have convinced everyone that socialism was the answer, but he certainly convinced them that things could be better than they were.”
Mr. Flory’s activism stemmed from a genuine concern for others’ welfare, said his wife, Cathern Davis Flory, 83. “My loss has been the gain, particularly of African-Americans and other people who have come in contact with him,” she said.
Survivors also include two daughters, Patricia Flory Stocks and Eloise Flory Shaw; a sister, Thelma Racker; four grandchildren; a great-grandchild; a niece; and a nephew.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Feb. 28 at the DuSable Museum of African-American History, 740 E. 56th Pl.
