Foreman, Flora I.

In 1914 Flora Foreman ran as the Socialist candidate for the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Columbia County, Oregon. She lost. She had been a member of the Socialist Party since 1911. Prior to running for office she had served as principal of the Quincy Public School. In 1914, she faced opposition in the town when a religious group tried to have her removed as principal, claiming that she taught atheism and socialism. She insisted on continuing to teach and to run the school, and the matter went to court several times over a span of a few years. She was initially acquitted, but later fired, after her opponents changed the composition of the school directors. It is unclear whether she was ultimately able to keep her job. Foreman moved to Texas a few years later, where she was charged and sentenced under the Espionage Act for seditious utterances.