Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He helped lead the Democrats" "white supremacy" campaigns in 1898 —when he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives— and in 1900. In 1873, Winston entered Cornell University but did not graduate. When The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reopened in 1875, he transferred there as the first student to register.
He graduated from University of North Carolina in 1879.
The following year he taught school and studied law with his father, Patrick Henry In 1880 he attended Dick and Dillard Law School in Greensboro and obtained his license to practice law in 1881. This same year he was appointed Clerk of Court for Bertie County, a position which he held for two years.
After this Winston entered into a successful law practice of his own in Bertie County. In 1884, Winston was the Republican nominee for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction.
In 1887, he represented Bertie and Northampton Counties in the North Carolina Senate (presumably as a Republican), and in 1898, he accepted the Democratic nomination for a seat in the House of Representatives, to which he was re-elected in 1900.
In 1904, Winston was elected lieutenant governor. Under the constitution of the time, he was not eligible to serve more than a single term. He later served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Francis Winston, originally a Republican, became a leading Democrat after objecting to the inclusion of African Americans in the political alliance between his party and the Populists.