The Suffragette’s Murder

Sandy Rustin

It’s the morning of July 5, 1857, and the tenants of Mayhew’s Boarding House on New York’s Lower East Side are getting ready for a busy day. They’re an odd bunch, given their surroundings. Among them are a mute, an Irishman, a gay Black man, two Southern Belles, and the Mayhews themselves — a husband and wife team committed to advancing the women’s suffrage movement. As they prepare to host an important gathering, they receive an unexpected visit from a constable. One of the tenants has been murdered.

Hilarious hijinks ensue, amidst the backdrop of a murder mystery, as the tenants band together to conceal their involvement in the suffrage movement and improvise an elaborate ruse to throw the constable off their scent. The investigation, however, reveals much more than murder motives and rabble-rousing. It becomes an examination of human rights, the struggle to define “a woman’s place,” and political systems that have historically sought to snuff out feminist voices.

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