Susan B. Anthony Convicted
Today in History
Susan B. Anthony Convicted for Voting
On June 18, 1873, women’s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony was convicted for casting an illegal ballot in the 1872 presidential election.
Women weren’t allowed to vote then, and wouldn’t be allowed for another forty-seven years.
The judge fined Anthony $100. Anthony told him, “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.”
She died in 1906, without ever legally voting — but also without paying one penny of the fine.
White suffragettes, although initially supportive of Black women in the movement, set aside Black women’s concerns after the passage of the 15th Amendment, which gave Black men the right to vote.
Many Southern women were outraged by that amendment, and White Northern women, in an effort to maintain White Southern support, quietly ceased including demands for Black women in their proposals and actions
Further reading:
Eugene V. Deb’s appreciation of her work: https://archive.org/details/170700DebsSusanbanthony
The trial: https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/susanbanthony.pdf
Anthony’s death: https://www.nytimes.com/1906/03/13/archives/miss-susan-b-anthony-died-this-morning-end-came-to-the-famous-woman.html
Further reading on race:
Monee Fields-White, “The Root: How Racism Tainted Women’s Suffrage” (https://www.npr.org/2011/03/25/134849480/the-root-how-racism-tainted-womens-suffrage)
Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race & Class (https://legalform.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/davis-women-race-class.pdf)
