February 14, 2020

Tomorrow, February 15, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the women’s rights activist and reformer Susan B. Anthony in 1820. She is best known for helping organize the woman suffrage movement, which worked to get women the right to vote. Anthony, who was arrested for voting in 1872, died on March 13, 1906. In 1920, 100 years ago, her lifelong dream came true as the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States became law, giving women the right to vote.

Susan B. Anthony was born 200 years ago on Feb. 15, 1820. Credit: Library of Congress

Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts. Her family were Quakers, who became known for their belief in the equality of men and women. Anthony’s family supported major reforms, such as temperance, the campaign to abolish alcoholic beverages, and the abolition of slavery.

From 1839 to 1849, Anthony taught school. She then joined the temperance movement. But most temperance groups consisted of men who did not allow women to help the movement. In 1852, she attended a temperance rally in Albany, New York, but was not allowed to speak because she was a woman. Soon after, she formed the Woman’s State Temperance Society of New York.

The Anthony dollar, minted for circulation in 1979 and 1980, honored woman suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony. A profile of Susan B. Anthony is on the front and the American eagle is on the reverse. Credit: WORLD BOOK photo by James Simek

Through her temperance work, Anthony became increasingly conscious of the disparity in rights between men and women. In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leader of the women’s rights movement. The two women became close friends and co-workers. Soon, Anthony devoted herself completely to women’s rights and became a leader of the movement.

Before and during the American Civil War (1861-1865), Anthony and Stanton supported abolitionism. After the war, however, they broke away from those who had been involved in the abolitionist movement. Many of these people showed little interest in woman suffrage and supported the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment gave the vote to black men, but not to women. In 1869, Anthony and Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association and worked for a woman suffrage amendment to the Constitution. In 1872, Anthony voted in the presidential election and was arrested and fined $100 (a large sum at the time), but she vehemently refused to pay it.

From 1881 to 1886, Anthony and Stanton coedited three volumes of a book called History of Woman Suffrage. Anthony published a fourth volume of the book in 1902. In 1904, she established the International Woman Suffrage Alliance with Carrie Chapman Catt, another leader of the suffrage movement.

June 17, 2013

The Supreme Court of the United States, in a 7-to-2 decision, today struck down an Arizona law that required would-be voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship, generally in the form of a birth certificate, U.S. passport, or driver’s license. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia, noted that a federal law “precludes Arizona from requiring a federal form applicant to submit information beyond that required by the form itself.” The law he referred to, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, allows people to register to vote using a form that asks, “Are you a citizen of the United States?” Prospective voters simply check a box for yes or no. By signing the form, the voter is swearing under the penalty of perjury that he or she is a citizen.

Voting rights advocates claim that state legislators passed laws requiring voters to show identification to discourage minorities from voting. They compared the laws to the Jim Crow laws passed by Southern states in the 1890′s to keep African Americans from voting. In recent years, four states besides Arizona–Alabama, Georgia, Kansas and Tennessee–have instituted voter ID laws; 12 other states have similar legislation pending.

At the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., justices of the high court meet to interpret the laws that govern the nation. (© Joe Sohm, Photo Researchers)

“Today’s decision sends a strong message that states cannot block their citizens from registering to vote by superimposing burdensome paperwork requirements on top of federal law,” stated Nina Perales in response to the court’s decision. Perales is the vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the court’s ruling. In the dissent, Justice Thomas wrote that the U.S. Constitution “authorizes states to determine the qualifications of voters in federal elections, which necessarily includes the related power to determine whether those qualifications are satisfied.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Grandfather clause
• Poll tax
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