The Suffrage Wagon Rides Again!

Marguerite Kearns grandmother’s Suffrage Wagon is again featured in Long Island’s publication, Newsday, today, in a beautiful two-page article by Bill Bleyer. The wagon, dubbed the Spirit of 1776, was used extensively by Rockville Centre suffragist Edna Kearns, who campaigned vigorously for votes for women. Edna was an editor at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and used that bully pulpit to advocate for woman suffrage. Loading the wagon with suffrage leaflets, and her ten-year-old daughter, Serena, Edna covered the Island, distributing leaflets, making speeches, encouraging women to claim their full share of their own democracy.
Although it has been exhibited from time to time, Marguerite and many others have campaigned for years to have the wagon take its rightful place in a permanent exhibit at the New York State Museum in Albany, so its message of political equality can be seen and appreciated by all. Check out the article below, and in the last two paragraphs look for a quote from a familiar name.
Thanks, Newsday!
More information on Edna Kearns can be found in Chapter 7 of my book, Long Island and the Woman Suffrage Movement.

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