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Thursday, February 13, 2020

Impassable Roads Keep Mary Winsor From Her Speech on Equal Suffrage, Feb. 13, 1920

From The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Feb. 13, 1920

Bad Roads Too Much for a Suffragette. . . Representative of National Woman’s Party Has Horrible Experience in Auto Between Elizabeth City and Norfolk

A large audience assembled at the Alkrama Theatre at 3 o’clock last Sunday to hear Miss Mary Winsor of the National Woman’s Party discuss the subject of equal suffrage, missed a corking good speech on the subject of bad roads. Miss Winsor missed her train out of Norfolk Sunday morning and attempted to get to Elizabeth City in an automobile, being assured by two jitney drivers that they could bring her thru for $25. Leaving Norfolk at 10:30 o’clock Sunday morning, Miss Winsor got within four miles of Elizabeth City by 4 o’clock that afternoon, after having been pulled out of the mud three different times. She finished the journey into Elizabeth City thru the kindly co-operation of an old Negro a mule and a cart.

And so the standard bearer for the Woman’s National Party, whose emblem is white, purple and gold, made her anything but triumphal entry into Elizabeth City at 5 o’clock Sunday afternoon, too late to get her audience by the tail. Miss Winsor is a veteran suffragist and one of the ablest speakers in the cause. She has traveled all over Europe and has crossed and recrossed the American continent in the cause of suffrage, and this was the first time she ever missed a lecture engagement. She has promised to write an account of her experience for this newspaper and it promises to be a lively contribution to the literature on North Carolina roads.

Miss Winsor was disappointed but not daunted. She says she will come to Elizabeth City again and get that speech off on an Elizabeth City audience, spite of our impassable roads.

In the absence of Miss Winsor, Sunday afternoon’s audience was pleasantly entertained by local talent. Mrs. Fred W. Simons sang two numbers, accompanied by Mrs. I.M. Meekins at the piano. Secretary Case of the Chamber of Commerce made a 30-minute speech.

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