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Talk: We Demand: The First Ever Cross-Country Road Trip for a Cause

  • Gray Public Library (map)

In September 1915 four women embarked in an open car from San Francisco’s Panama Pacific International Exposition on the country’s first cross-country road trip for a cause. They were carrying a petition to Congress and President Wilson demanding an amendment to the United States Constitution enfranchising women. Over primitive, poorly signed roads and through blazing heat, rain, snow, and mud, they battled their way across the country, stopping in towns along the way to collect more signatures and to raise awareness that most women in the country were prohibited from voting. Maine author Anne Gass retraced their route in 2015 and blogged about it at www.suffrageroadtrip.com. This lively talk is accompanied by historic slides.