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Susan B. Anthony

b.1820 - 1906

“I beg you to speak of women as you do the Negro, speak of her as a human being, as a citizen of the United States, as a half of the people in whose hands lies the destiny of this nation.”

- Susan B. Anthony

 

An inspirational Quaker activist and teacher, Susan joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1852 to oppose slavery, work on the right for women to vote, own property, and support women's labor organizations. Susan campaigned through her Rochester, New York newspaper, The Revolution, from 1868 - the 1870's against lynchings, racial inequality, women's suffrage and to fight for the abolition of slavery. Due to her early Quaker upbringing, Susan fought against the degradation practice of slave holding. In a diary entry in 1861 she wrote, "fitted out a fugitive slave for Canada with the help of Harriet Tubman."

Susan was the President of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) to ensure women got voting rights with the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was known as the Susan B Anthony Amendment when it was ratified in August of 1920. 

Susan tirelessly gave close to one hundred speeches a year on the subject of women's suffrage. During her eighty-six years, she was initially ridiculed for what she stood for; later she and other suffragists had changed people’s minds. 

Susan did not live to see the 19th Amendment pass. It was another 14 years, and the agitation of younger suffragists that got their work to fruition. Susan's work, however, was honored by the United States Treasury when they placed her image on a US silver dollar in 1999. She was the first woman honored in this way by the United States.