Feb. 20, 1918: 106 years ago, Feb 20 1918, 16-year-old San Francisco socialist Hazel [...]

106 years ago, Feb 20 1918, 16-year-old San Francisco socialist Hazel Stewart refused to pledge allegiance to the American flag in opposition to US involvement in World War I. Her suspension led to a wave of student anti-war protest, triggering a crisis for the SF school board

Stewart was a member of the SF chapter of the Young People’s Socialist League, the Socialist Party’s youth wing, led by Lowell High School senior Malvina Milder (who would later become famous as the folksinger Malvina Reynolds), the daughter of leading local radical David Milder

As the school board met to debate expelling all YPSL members, the group held its own meeting at the Jack London Memorial Institute, a meeting hall founded by Alexander Berkman and shared by the IWW and Socialist Party, where over 100 youths pledged not to salute the flag

Stewart’s mother, herself a revolutionary socialist, encouraged her daughter’s refusal to salute the flag, telling the media: “Rather than have my daughter sacrifice her principles I would see her go without an education… we do not believe in saluting any flag”

Although the school board did not follow through on its threats to expel all 75-100 members of the YPSL, Hazel Stewart was expelled in early March. Before the end of the school year, many other YPSL members, including Malvina Milder, were also expelled