1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,880 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, Brainstuff. Lauren 2 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:12,080 Speaker 1: Vogelbaum Here. It's been more than one hundred years since 3 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: American women gained the right to vote with the passage 4 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: of the nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and we cannot 5 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,600 Speaker 1: discuss the nineteenth Amendment and the women's suffrage movement without 6 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 1: talking about one of its most central figures, Susan B. Anthony. 7 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:29,280 Speaker 1: The amendment was named the Anthony Amendment in her honor, 8 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:33,479 Speaker 1: and years later, Anthony's stern image found a home on 9 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:38,640 Speaker 1: the United States dollar coin, replacing President Dwight Eisenhower. So 10 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:42,760 Speaker 1: how in one century did the woman who claimed failure 11 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:47,600 Speaker 1: is impossible go from espousing revolutionary ideas to becoming an 12 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:53,640 Speaker 1: honoree on US currency. Born in Adams, Massachusetts, on February 13 00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:56,880 Speaker 1: fifteenth of eighteen twenty, Anthony spent most of her childhood 14 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:00,600 Speaker 1: in New York. Her father's Quaker upbringing I pressed upon 15 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:04,880 Speaker 1: her the belief that everyone is equal under God. She 16 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:06,760 Speaker 1: worked as a teacher in upstate New York during her 17 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:09,760 Speaker 1: twenties before returning home, where she became involved in the 18 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,959 Speaker 1: abolition movement, working alongside important figures like William Lloyd Garrison 19 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: and Frederick Douglas. Along with abolishing slavery, Anthony also sought 20 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:22,520 Speaker 1: to rid the country of alcohol. She and her family 21 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: were active in the temperance movement. Oh When she was 22 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,360 Speaker 1: denied the chance to speak at a Temperance meeting because 23 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: she was a woman, she partnered with Elizabeth Catty Stanton 24 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:34,560 Speaker 1: and founded the Women's New York State Temperance Society in 25 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty three. She had met Stanton, who had become 26 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:41,759 Speaker 1: a lifelong friend and collaborator, at an anti slavery conference 27 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:45,039 Speaker 1: the previous year. At that point, Stanton had already given 28 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,920 Speaker 1: her famed Declaration of Sentiments speech at the Seneca Falls 29 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: Convention in eighteen forty eight. Anthony continued to be active 30 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:56,320 Speaker 1: in both movements. For example, during the Civil War, she 31 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 1: helped collect more than three hundred thousand signatures on petitions 32 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: to abolish slavery with the Constitutional Amendment. After the war, 33 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:07,760 Speaker 1: Anthony and Stanton founded the American Equal Rights Association in 34 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:12,160 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty six, an organization initially aiming to secure equal 35 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: rights and voting rights for all black and white men 36 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:20,000 Speaker 1: and women in America, but the Reconstruction era was a 37 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,680 Speaker 1: sticky political time, there were fissures in the suffrage movement, 38 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:27,000 Speaker 1: with disagreement among activists over whether to focus on the 39 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:30,760 Speaker 1: easier goal of attaining black men's rights first and then 40 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:35,639 Speaker 1: working on getting women the vote. Anthony's biographer, a contemporary 41 00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:38,640 Speaker 1: journalist by the name of Ida Husted Harper, wrote that 42 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,720 Speaker 1: Anthony said she would sooner cut off her right arm 43 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:44,600 Speaker 1: before she would ever work for or demand the ballot 44 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:49,519 Speaker 1: for the black man and not the woman. The split 45 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,720 Speaker 1: between the suffrage movement was deep, as are the roots 46 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:56,799 Speaker 1: of racism in America. Anthony and Stanton chose to oppose 47 00:02:56,840 --> 00:03:00,160 Speaker 1: the Fifteenth Amendment, which eventually did give black men the 48 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 1: right to vote in eighteen seventy. Other activists like Douglas 49 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: and Lucy Stone decried their decision, and the American Equal 50 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:14,520 Speaker 1: Rights Association disbanded. In eighteen sixty nine, Anthony and Stanton 51 00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:19,200 Speaker 1: formed the more radical National Woman Suffrage Association, and Lucy 52 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:24,520 Speaker 1: Stone started rival group, the American Woman Suffrage Association. A 53 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,160 Speaker 1: Stone in her group supported the fifteenth Amendment as a 54 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: step in the right direction and focused on a state 55 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:34,280 Speaker 1: by state strategy to gain voting rights for women. By contrast, 56 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:37,400 Speaker 1: Anthony and Stanton's group sought voting and other rights for women, 57 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: and a federal constitutional amendment to ensure them. Sort of 58 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: a side note, Anthony was also an adopter of reform dress, 59 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:49,600 Speaker 1: which consisted of wearing bloomers and a shorter dress instead 60 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,600 Speaker 1: of the cumbersome woman's ensemble of the period, which could 61 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,320 Speaker 1: weigh up to twenty five pounds that's about eleven kilos. 62 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: She even cut her hair short, but after criticism, Anthony 63 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,680 Speaker 1: determined that the dress distracted from the message and gave 64 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:07,120 Speaker 1: it up. Although she never had the opportunity to vote legally, 65 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,280 Speaker 1: Anthony cast a ballot in the eighteen seventy two presidential 66 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:14,640 Speaker 1: election of voting for Ulysses S. Grant. For this criminal act, 67 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:18,159 Speaker 1: she was arrested, tried, and fined one hundred dollars. She 68 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:22,080 Speaker 1: never paid the fine. Anthony died in nineteen oh six, 69 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:28,040 Speaker 1: fourteen years before the amendment she wanted was ratified. Before it, 70 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:31,839 Speaker 1: amendments allowing for income tax the sixteenth of the Popular 71 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:35,960 Speaker 1: Election of Senators the seventeenth and prohibition the eighteenth were 72 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: added to the Constitution. Although several states had already legalized 73 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:43,800 Speaker 1: women's suffrage, on a national level, women gained the right 74 00:04:43,839 --> 00:04:46,920 Speaker 1: to vote with the Nineteenth Amendments, passing on August eighteenth 75 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:51,080 Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty. It reads, the right of citizens of 76 00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 1: the United States to vote shall not be denied or 77 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:55,880 Speaker 1: abridged by the United States or by any State on 78 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:59,159 Speaker 1: account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this 79 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:05,440 Speaker 1: Article by pro legislation. Of course, merely having the law 80 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:08,920 Speaker 1: in place didn't make accessing that right easy for everyone. 81 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:13,279 Speaker 1: Native Americans weren't recognized as US citizens with voting access 82 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: until the Snyder Act of nineteen twenty four, and all 83 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: kinds of legal and social restrictions in the Jim Crow 84 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: South excluded black women and men from the polls until 85 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:28,400 Speaker 1: the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five. But back 86 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:31,640 Speaker 1: to Anthony for her contributions to the passage of what 87 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:35,560 Speaker 1: became the Nineteenth Amendment. Anthony was the first non mythical 88 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:39,279 Speaker 1: woman to appear on a US coin. Figures like Miss 89 00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:41,880 Speaker 1: Columbia and Lady Liberty had appeared on coins in the 90 00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:45,279 Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, and First Lady Martha Washington appeared on paper 91 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:48,679 Speaker 1: notes around the same time, but the Susan B. Anthony 92 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: dollar was issued by the United States Mint in nineteen 93 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:55,719 Speaker 1: seventy nine to replace the Eisenhower Dollar. At that time, 94 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 1: the second wave of the women's movement was underway and 95 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:01,560 Speaker 1: the academic discipline of women's studies was in its infancy. 96 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:06,040 Speaker 1: A Choosing Anthony as a founding figure for the movement 97 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:09,279 Speaker 1: and for the dollar coin emerged as a logical choice 98 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:13,520 Speaker 1: because she had been so committed to suffrage for so long. However, 99 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:16,880 Speaker 1: with a modest marketing campaign surrounding its launch and the 100 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:20,080 Speaker 1: coins similarity in size to a quarter, her dollar was 101 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:23,880 Speaker 1: considered a flop within months, which was probably more related 102 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:26,520 Speaker 1: to the coin itself than to Anthony's image being on it. 103 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:33,320 Speaker 1: A suffragist, abolitionist, Tito Toller, and renegade, Anthony never married 104 00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:37,800 Speaker 1: or had children. And in case you're wondering, the bee 105 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:41,200 Speaker 1: in Susan B. Anthony is for Brownell. There was a 106 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:43,240 Speaker 1: bit of a fad from middle initials during her youth, 107 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:45,440 Speaker 1: and she adopted the bee in honor of the aunt 108 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:49,160 Speaker 1: she had been named after, whose married name was Susan Brownell. 109 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:57,440 Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article Susan B. Anthony, Suffragist, 110 00:06:57,520 --> 00:07:01,159 Speaker 1: Abolitionist and Renegade on hostuffworks dot Com, written by Kerry Whitney. 111 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: Brainstuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how 112 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:07,279 Speaker 1: stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Former 113 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,880 Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 114 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:14,160 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.