susan b. anthony

In honor of Women's History Month I am going to feature work from my series Once Upon which focuses on the founding sisters of our country. They are the iconoclastic women who worked tirelessly for change, equality and the future that we often take for granted today. Their accomplishments are often unknown and recognition is minimal, yet their achievements are remarkable and noteworthy.

Suffrage. Featuring Susan B. Anthony...

Susan B. Anthony was born in 1820 to a Quaker family with activist traditions. With a father who believed in equal treatment for boys and girls, Anthony and her sisters received the same quality education and her brothers. Initially a member of the temperance movement, yet unable to speak at temperance rallies because she was a woman, Anthony instead joined the women's rights movement in 1852. Soon afterward, she dedicated her life to the suffrage movement.

Susan B. Anthony never married, and with passionate and assertive character while enduring opposition and abuse, she traveled the world speaking out in favor of a woman's right to vote, own property and retain their earnings. In 1869, with close friend Elizabeth Stanton, Anthony founded the National Women's Suffrage Association. In 1872 she was the first person arrested and put on trial for voting. Unable to speak in her defense she refused to pay the dollar fine toward her "unjust penalty." Given her organization genius, her canvassing plan is still used today by grassroot and political organizations.

"Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry." - Susan B. Anthony