Millions of American women will vote on Election Day. But in the 1800s, women did not have that right. Susan B. Anthony thought that was unfair. She voted for president in 1872.
Police arrested Anthony at her home in Rochester, New York. A judge said she broke the law. He fined her $100. “I shall never pay a dollar,” she told him. This was just one part of her fight for equality.
Anthony was born on February 15, 1820. Members of Anthony’s family told about her struggle for women’s suffrage. Sarah Baker is the granddaughter of Susan B. Anthony’s cousin. Cynthia Holt is Baker’s niece.
Susan B. Anthony was a “warrior for her cause,” said Baker. “Nothing stopped her.” She added that Anthony had “endless energy and such strong courage.”
Anthony’s strength inspired the family. “When I was growing up, my mother constantly talked about our cousin Susan,” Baker remembered. “Our mother used to say to all of us that you can be anything you want to be. Look at what cousin Susan did.”
Many people in the 1800s thought women should not speak in public. Yet Anthony gave many speeches. Anthony even helped start a newspaper. It shared stories of equality. The paper said: “Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.”
American women got the right to vote in 1920. Sadly, Anthony never voted legally. She died in 1906. Anthony did not see her success. But she had changed America.
“You never know what difference you’re going to make,” said Cynthia Holt. “All of those little actions add up. And can have a huge effect,” she added. You may not see the results, “but it’s still worth doing.”
Susan B. Anthony “worked hard her whole life to make the world a better place,” Holt shared. “And you can do the same.”
Updated February 28, 2020, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Alexa Tirapelli
