On to the Final Rounds
With the 1912 election over, the movement looked ahead, seeking new ways to move forward. Local groups began to yield the floor to larger regional events that attracted more attention, but even so, the villages were not to be forgotten.
On May 24, 1913, there was a Votes for Women Pageant, in which five hundred women paraded from Mineola to Hempstead.
There were two official Grand Marshals for the parade, both male.
Each had distinguished himself working to advance women's suffrage.
One was in the parade; the other flew his plane overhead;
note how the driver in the photograph is looking skyward.
https://msmagazine.com/2020/05/24/today-in-feminist-history-votes-for-women-and-parades-too-may-24-1913/
Although pageants and parades attracted people, not everyone could - or would want to - go to see them. Thus, a new suffragist phenomenon was introduced to Nassau County on that day: the Flying Squadron. Clusters of automobiles visited more than twenty villages, including Hicksville, while the pageant was taking place. At each stop, suffragist speakers told the people who had gathered that the movement would continue, and explained to them why they ought to support it. The work would go on as long as necessary, until victory was won.
Huntington Long-Islander, June 11, 1915
There were suffragist bake sales, and suffragist speakers at the Hicksville Fire House, sometimes presented in conjunction with the Jericho Political Equality League. That fall, women's suffrage again was defeated at the polls, and the local margins of loss remained significant.
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Judging by the newspapers, the suffrage movement was quiet in 1916 - or perhaps it was merely preempted by news of the continuing war in Europe. By 1917, however, the movement was again looking ahead to an autumn vote in New York State. The first sign of new life appeared in the newspapers in February, when two women spoke at a meeting in Hicksville's Town Hall, discussing the benefits which other jurisdictions had experienced after granting voting rights to women.
In May, the New York State Women's Suffrage Association held a "Long Island Suffrage Rally" at the Garden City Hotel.The local newspapers pointed out that Hicksvillians could easily get there by automobile, train, or trolley.
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