Susan B. Anthony: A Woman Ahead of Her Time
On October 10, 1978, President Jimmy Carter authorized production of dollar coins displaying Susan B. Anthony’s portrait. When the coin was struck just months later, Anthony became the first female American citizen to appear on our coinage, adding to her extensive list of achievements.
Anthony was born in 1820 to a Quaker family in Adams, Massachusetts. She began her life of advocacy efforts by collecting anti-slavery petition signatures at only seventeen years old. After nearly two decades of this work, she became the State of New York’s agent to the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1856.
Through her work, Anthony met and befriended Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851. The two worked together on countless social reform projects, as both were committed to creating a more inclusive America. When Anthony, on the basis of sex, was denied the right to speak at a temperance conference in 1852, she and Stanton formed the New York Women’s State Temperance Society.
One of the team’s most successful organizations formed in 1863, when they founded the Women’s Loyal National League. The first female-led political organization in American history, the League was formed to garner support for a Constitutional amendment that would abolish slavery in the United States. The League gathered nearly 400,000 signatures on their petitions, making it the largest petition drive to that point in history.
Anthony’s legacy is defined by her role in the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. Once arrested for illegally voting in the 1872 Presidential Election, she was a true martyr for her cause. She and Stanton are credited with unifying the women’s voting rights movement by forming the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Though the organization consisted of only 7,000 members at its inception, it eventually grew to be the largest voluntary organization in the United States with a membership of over 2,000,000. Through petitioning and other organizing efforts, NAWSA played an essential role in pushing Congress to pass the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1919, guaranteeing women the right to vote in 1920.
Susan B. Anthony impacted American culture in a way that few others have. Her efforts, along with those of Stanton and many others, laid the foundation for women and people of color to enjoy America’s greatest liberties. Largely regarded as one of the greatest figures in our nation’s history, it was a true honor to display her portrait on a United States Dollar.
