I'm Alexander Solomon Curious City Editor, and I'm here in Chicago's Belmont-Cragan neighborhood,

and I've just come inside Lucy Parsons Park.

It's a small park with a playground, with a swing set and a slide.

Not a lot of kids out today. It's pretty quiet.

I asked several people who've walked by whether they'd ever

heard of Lucy Parsons and nobody had any idea who she was. The Park District describes her this way.

Nationally important for her role in labor reform and the efforts for women's rights. Born of a mixed Native American,

African American, and possibly Hispanic heritage, she married Albert Parsons, a labor organizer

who became one of the martyrs who was executed after the Haymarket Riot. She was a prolific

writer on issues related to socialism and labor reform, writing for publications such as the socialist.

Though involved in anarchism and often portrayed as, quote, a dangerous woman, she was defended by important Chicago leaders like Jane Adams.

But as we'll learn in this Curious City episode, this

description's only partially true.

And Lucy Parsons

wasn't entirely who she claimed to be.

That's coming up.

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