PEOPLE: Women’s History Month 2023 honors and recognizes Susan B. Anthony as a woman who devoted her life to civil and women’s rights in America
AGN.News Team
March 13, 2023
WASHINGTON (AGN.News) – Women’s History Month 2023 pays special tribute to Susan B. Anthony who devoted her life to promoting women’s rights in America. She spent a lifetime in service to America. She fought for women’s right to vote. Women’s suffrage was her life’s mission.
America has generally seen the rise of historical figures whose life and life skills coupled with their accomplishments have had a positive effect on the lives of men and women alike.
Many of those individuals were women. Women who saw the need to lead by example and encourage others to do the same. Women who would go beyond the call of duty and shape the future of America.
Susan B. Anthony helped build America
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) was an American woman who saw America’s growth would require women to help advance its social graces and its treatment of women.
The idea of men being in charge of virtually every aspect of life in the country always troubled her. Many people felt women were put on earth to serve men. Anthony knew better. She saw the value of women as assets and not merely servants.
Anthony knew women had more to offer than doing at-home chores. She knew women were good managers, financial advisors, organizers, teachers, designers, chefs, caregivers and a whole lot more. She knew such recognition required a community-level civic engagement.
Anthony came to realize the civic engagement required giving women the right to vote, that is, women needed to help choose community leaders, state officials, and federal office holders. She knew women had many unique abilities that were not part of the male-endowed skill sets.
She understood the value of Black life. She saw how enslaved African Americans were abused and mistreated. Anthony understood America had to show it had come of age by treating all of it citizens as equal, socially equal. She learned this from her family who were committed to social equality.
Anthony was committed to women’s rights
At age 17, Susan B. Anthony collected anti-slavery petitions. As she turned 31, Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who became her lifelong friend and co-worker in social reform activities. Their interest was in the field of women’s rights.
At age 36, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. As an abolitionist, Anthony inspired others to abolish the institution of slavery.
Anthony was a social reformer who understood at an early age the many injustices heaped upon the innocent and launched her mission to change it. Anthony and Stanton started several groups to help promote the issues they saw needed to be advanced in society.
Anthony promoted equal rights in America
During the Civil War Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded a petition drive group called the Women’s Loyal National League, the first national women’s political organization in the United States. This group collected nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery.
After the war, they initiated the American Equal Rights Association. This group was an organization whose mission was to campaign for equal rights for both women and African Americans. Towards that end, they published a women’s rights newspaper called The Revolution in 1868.
In 1869, they founded the National Woman Suffrage Association as part a split in the women’s rights movement. It later merged with another group to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association, with Anthony as leader.
Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting
In 1872, Anthony was arrested in her hometown of Rochester, New York. She was arrested by a U.S. Marshall for voting in the 1872 presidential election in violation of the Enforcement Act of 1870, U.S. Constitution Amendment XIV law in which only men were allowed to vote.
At the time she cast her ballot, Anthony was the nation’s best-known advocate for women’s right to vote.
In this widely publicized trial on June 17, 1873, of United States v. Susan B. Anthony in U.S. federal court.
Anthony was found guilty and fined $100. Anthony said she would never to pay the fine. Judge Ward Hunt’s court refused to take further action.
Fourteen other Rochester women who voted were arrested but the government never took them to court. However, the election inspectors who allowed the women to vote were arrested, tried, and found guilty. President Ulysses S. Grant, who won the 1872 election, pardoned them after they refused to pay the fines.
Susan B. Anthony worked tirelessly
Susan B. Anthony celebrated her 80th birthday in the White House at the invitation of President William McKinley.
After her birthday celebration, she spoke of the many people who had worked with her for women’s rights:
“There have been others also just as true and devoted to the cause-I wish I could name every one-but with such women consecrating their lives, failure is impossible.” “Failure is impossible” quickly became a watchword for the women’s movement.
She became the first female citizen to be depicted on U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin.
Anthony died on March 13, 1906 – she was 86 years old. She left a legacy of work for women to follow.
Susan B. Anthony work helped women
On May 21, 1919, the suffrage (right to vote) amendment passed the House of Representatives and was quickly followed by the Senate, on June 4, 1919.
It was then submitted to the states for ratification, achieving the requisite 36 ratifications to secure adoption, and thereby go into effect, on August 18, 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment’s adoption was certified on August 26, 1920.
As a result, the Nineteenth Amendment enfranchised 26 million American women in time for the 1920 U.S. presidential election.
After the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, whose character and policies were strongly influenced by Anthony, was transformed into the League of Women Voters, which is still an active force in U.S. politics.
In 1973, Anthony was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
The first memorial to Anthony was established by African Americans. In 1907, a year after Anthony’s death, a stained-glass window was installed at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church in Rochester that featured her portrait and the words “Failure is Impossible”, a quote from her that had become a watchword for the women’s suffrage movement.
Thank you, Susan B. Anthony!
Women’s History Month 2023 recognizes Susan B. Anthony as an example for future activists. Anthony was a successful woman who devoted her life in support of civil and women’s rights in the United States of America.
Women’s suffrage was her life’s mission. She passed away fourteen years before the Nineteenth Amendment was certified on August 26, 1920.
From August 26, 1920, all eligible women in America should exercise their right to vote. This was a long and hard-fought battle over decades to get this right to vote for women.
Therefore, all eligible women should exercise their voting rights on election day. So, on February 15th every year everyone should pause and thank Anthony for her voice. Many thanks to women like Susan B. Anthony for guaranteeing this right for women!
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Anthony was found guilty and fined $100. Anthony said she would never to pay the fine. Judge Ward Hunt’s court refused to take further action.
