Francis Donnell Winston was born in Windsor (Bertie County), North Carolina on October 2, 1857. Winston was an attorney, jurist, and politician who served as a legislator and as lieutenant governor of the state (1905-1909). A former Republican, Winston turned Democrat in 1890 and broadly advocated for white supremacist rule of the state government. He championed the introduction of a bill that sought to strip Black North Carolinians of the vote, which bill became the basis of the disfranchisement amendment passed by voters in the 1900 election. He died in Windsor on January 28, 1941.