exposition grounds, where Henry B. and Miss Alice Stone Blackwell,
Mrs. Mamie Folsom Wynn, Miss Koch, Miss Helen Morris Lewis, Miss
Claudia G. Tharin, Mrs. T. M. Prentiss and Mrs. Young made addresses.
A reception was given in the Woman's Building. In May, 1903, Mrs.
Young made a suffrage speech at the meeting of the State Press
Association at Georgetown. With her death in 1906 the organization
lapsed but there was a small group of suffragists in Columbia with Dr.
Jane Bruce Guignard president.

It was not until May 15, 1914, when Miss Lavinia Engle, one of the
organizers sent by the National American Woman Suffrage Association,
called together a representative group of clubwomen, that the State
Equal Suffrage League was organized in the Kennedy Library at
Spartanburg. Mrs. M. T. Coleman of Abbeville, retiring president of
the State Federation of Women's Clubs, was elected president; Mrs.
John Gary Evans, Spartanburg, first and Mrs. J. L. Coker, Hartsville,
second, vice-president; Mrs. Henry Martin, Columbia, secretary; Mrs.
F. T. Kicklin, Chester, treasurer. Dr. Rosa H. Gannt, Spartanburg, was
appointed legislative chairman. Three organized leagues--Columbia,
Charleston and Spartanburg--with a membership of about 450, joined at
this time. In twenty months the number of local leagues increased to
eight and the membership to 1,514.

Three speakers were brought to the State during the winter of 1915,
Mrs. Lila Meade Valentine, president of the Virginia League; Mrs.
Desha Breckinridge, president of the Kentucky Association, and Miss
Kate M. Gordon of Louisiana. The league supplied literature for school
and club debates and distributed it at many county fairs. On October
17 a State convention was held in Columbia. Mrs. Coleman and Dr. Gannt
resigned; Mrs. Harriet P. Lynch, Cheraw, was elected president and
Mrs. W. C. Cathcart of Columbia was appointed legislative chairman.
This year for the first time suffrage was represented in a parade of
women, which took place during the State Fair with a suffrage float in
the evening display.

In 1916 the annual convention met in Charlestown. During the year Mrs.
Lynch had stressed organization and chairmen had been appointed in
sixteen counties to work along political lines, the unit of
organization being the wards in cities and townships in counties. A
plank in the Democratic platform to refer a woman suffrage amendment
to the voters was secured at the State convention in the sp