Susan B. Anthony Biography

Susan B. Anthony is one of America’s most famous activists for women’s rights.

Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the American Equal Rights Association in 1866, and she spent the better part of her life in the public eye as a fervent advocate for the voting rights of women.

Anthony managed to register and vote in Monroe County, New York in 1872, mostly because local officials didn’t want to risk a lawsuit. She was arrested at her house and hauled to jail (she said when the arresting officer paid the cab it was “the first cents worth I ever had from Uncle Sam.”). Anthony was tried and convicted after the judge directed the (all male) jury to find her guilty of voting illegally. She was fined $100.

Anthony refused to pay the fine, and the state didn’t bother to collect it.

In 1920, 14 years after Anthony’s death, American women finally won the vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Susan B. Anthony also campaigned on social issues, including the abolition of slavery and the abolition of alcohol.

Congress honored Anthony in 1979 by putting her portrait on a new one-dollar coin. The coin was produced in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1999.