She was one of the best known suffragists of the early 20th Century and is the only woman known to have died while pursuing the cause. A new documentary called Forward Into Light looks at Inez Milholland, who lived for a while and is buried in the Adirondacks. Writer and Producer Martha Wheelock visited Lewis, in Essex County, recently and talked about her film with WAMC’s North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley.
“Well she’s one of those unsung heroes that we should know. The most famous suffrage icon you’ve never heard of, I always say. She’s best known for the image that she presented in 1913 on a white horse leading the biggest suffrage march in Washington D.C. where 8,000 women demanded their right to vote.”
A documentary clip describes the march.
Martha Wheelock reflects on Milhollands life. “She was very dramatic on a white horse, like a Joan of Arc leading the women up the Pennsylvania Avenue…..And she dies in 1916, a hundred years ago, because she went through the western state urging the women who could vote, there were eleven states in the West where the women could vote … giving fifty speeches in 24 days and she became very ill. And she collapses in Los Angeles on October 24th, 1916.”
A documentary clip describes Milholland's collapse and death. Wheelock notes: “Three years later women won the right to vote.”
The documentary is being distributed free of charge.
