Socialist Section Forest Home Cemetery

A number of socialists, anarchists, and labor activists have chosen to be buried or have their ashes scattered near the Haymarket monument, in what is sometimes jokingly referred to as "the Communist Plot". Among them:

  • Emma Goldman (1869-1940), whose upright monument appears in shadow at the right in the above picture.
  • William Foster (1881-1966), union organizer, author, Communist Party USA candidate for president.
  • Jack Johnstone (1881-1942), union organizer, worked with Foster and Mahatma Gandhi
  • Art Shields (1888-1988), editor of Solidarity
  • Irving Abrams (1891-1980), last survivor of the group owning the Haymarket monument
  • Lucy Parsons (1859-1942), wife of Albert Parsons, founded Pioneer Aid and Support Association, Industrial Workers of the World, led May Day 1886 march and 1915 "Unemployed Parade".
  • Ben Reitman, MD (1880-1943) "King of the Hobos", leader of International Itinerant Migratory Workers Union
  • Frank A Pellegrino (1890-1969), charter member of Communist Party USA. His grave features a hammer and sickle.
  • Claude Lightfoot (1910-1991), African-American leader of Communist Party USA, author.
  • William "Big Bill" Haywood (1869-1928), founded Industrial Workers of the World, prominent in "Free Speech Movement". Jailed for speaking against World War I, fled to Moscow. Cremated - half of his ashes are here, half in the Kremlin.

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