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- Guest Viewpoint: Remembering Susan B. Anthony
Guest Viewpoint: Remembering Susan B. Anthony
- By Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon
- Published 02/15/2010
- Editorial and Opinion
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Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon
Ruth Jones McClendon was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1996, representing District 120 in San Antonio. Her service during the 81st Regular Session of the Legislature marks her seventh term in office.
On Feb. 15, some 190 years ago, Susan Brownell Anthony was born. American history buffs know her name instantly.
Even those who aren’t especially fascinated with American history would do well to learn of the legacy of this determined, courageous and articulate patriot. A Quaker, teacher, temperance and abolition organizer, she also worked for emancipation, and advocated equal pay for equal work.
Her most famous cause, as will be documented forever in American history, was assuring that women in the United States would have the right to vote in public elections. In 1852, at the age of 32, Susan B. Anthony quit teaching and joined the fight for women’s suffrage.
That same year, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was published in Boston. It became illegal in Ohio for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day.
San Francisco Methodists established the first Black church, Zion Methodist. And, Emma Snodgrass was arrested in Boston for wearing pants instead of a skirt.
Women did gain recognition as citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.
As a result, Anthony and others thought this would also secure their right to vote.
The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified by the states in 1870 within a year after Congress passed it, declaring that a person’s race, color, or prior history as a slave could not bar that person from voting. Boldly claiming their Fourteenth Amendment rights, she and 13 other women were registered in Rochester on Nov. 1, 1872, after a lengthy argument with the voting registrars and supervisors, according Douglas Linder author of The Trial of Susan B Anthony for Illegal Voting.
At the Nov. 5th election, she and several other women were challenged again, but the inspectors voted to allow the ballots. By casting their votes, she and fourteen other women voters were later arrested, as were the inspectors who authorized their votes.
The charge was violating the 1870 Enforcement Act, which prohibited willful and knowing illegal votes. Anthony herself refused to pay bail, but Judge Henry Selden from Albany paid it for her.
In June, 1873, she requested to be tried before a jury but the trial judge ordered her to pay a $100 fine and court costs without submitting the case to the jury. He then prevented an appeal by declaring that he would not commit her until she paid the fine.
She never did, and the order was never enforced. Anthony spent the remainder of her life fighting for the right to vote, and at age 86 died of pneumonia.
According to her March 13, 2006 obituary in the New York Times, commemorating the 100th anniversary of her death, Anthony averaged 100 lectures a year for a number of years.
“She engaged in eight different State campaigns for a Constitutional amendment enfranchising women, and hearings before committees of practically every Congress since 1869 were granted to her.”
First proposed in 1878, the Nineteenth Amendment states, “The right of citizens to vote shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” This same amendment was introduced in every session of Congress for the next 41 years.
Anthony’s goal was finally fulfilled in 1920, when Tennessee became the deciding state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. Just for the record, Texas voted to ratify it in 1919.
This year in Texas, several public elections will be held: primary, primary run-off, municipal (and perhaps municipal run-off) elections, followed by the general state election in November. With so many elections and extended early voting, it would be a shame for any voter to be so worn out by campaign ads as to ignore the process and skip the ballot booth.
Indeed, it would be ironic to have come so far in making voting accessible, then forfeit the right to vote by taking it for granted. We have come a long way in America since 1852, thanks to Susan B. Anthony and others like her.
If you feel tempted to bypass the ballot box because voting doesn’t seem all that important, be inspired by the words of Thomas Paine that she often quoted: “The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected.”
As you leave the polling place, give a nod to Susan B. Anthony.
Ruth Jones McClendon was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1996, representing District 120 in San Antonio.
Even those who aren’t especially fascinated with American history would do well to learn of the legacy of this determined, courageous and articulate patriot. A Quaker, teacher, temperance and abolition organizer, she also worked for emancipation, and advocated equal pay for equal work.
Her most famous cause, as will be documented forever in American history, was assuring that women in the United States would have the right to vote in public elections. In 1852, at the age of 32, Susan B. Anthony quit teaching and joined the fight for women’s suffrage.
That same year, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was published in Boston. It became illegal in Ohio for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day.
San Francisco Methodists established the first Black church, Zion Methodist. And, Emma Snodgrass was arrested in Boston for wearing pants instead of a skirt.
Women did gain recognition as citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.
As a result, Anthony and others thought this would also secure their right to vote.
The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified by the states in 1870 within a year after Congress passed it, declaring that a person’s race, color, or prior history as a slave could not bar that person from voting. Boldly claiming their Fourteenth Amendment rights, she and 13 other women were registered in Rochester on Nov. 1, 1872, after a lengthy argument with the voting registrars and supervisors, according Douglas Linder author of The Trial of Susan B Anthony for Illegal Voting.
At the Nov. 5th election, she and several other women were challenged again, but the inspectors voted to allow the ballots. By casting their votes, she and fourteen other women voters were later arrested, as were the inspectors who authorized their votes.
The charge was violating the 1870 Enforcement Act, which prohibited willful and knowing illegal votes. Anthony herself refused to pay bail, but Judge Henry Selden from Albany paid it for her.
In June, 1873, she requested to be tried before a jury but the trial judge ordered her to pay a $100 fine and court costs without submitting the case to the jury. He then prevented an appeal by declaring that he would not commit her until she paid the fine.
She never did, and the order was never enforced. Anthony spent the remainder of her life fighting for the right to vote, and at age 86 died of pneumonia.
According to her March 13, 2006 obituary in the New York Times, commemorating the 100th anniversary of her death, Anthony averaged 100 lectures a year for a number of years.
“She engaged in eight different State campaigns for a Constitutional amendment enfranchising women, and hearings before committees of practically every Congress since 1869 were granted to her.”
First proposed in 1878, the Nineteenth Amendment states, “The right of citizens to vote shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” This same amendment was introduced in every session of Congress for the next 41 years.
Anthony’s goal was finally fulfilled in 1920, when Tennessee became the deciding state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. Just for the record, Texas voted to ratify it in 1919.
This year in Texas, several public elections will be held: primary, primary run-off, municipal (and perhaps municipal run-off) elections, followed by the general state election in November. With so many elections and extended early voting, it would be a shame for any voter to be so worn out by campaign ads as to ignore the process and skip the ballot booth.
Indeed, it would be ironic to have come so far in making voting accessible, then forfeit the right to vote by taking it for granted. We have come a long way in America since 1852, thanks to Susan B. Anthony and others like her.
If you feel tempted to bypass the ballot box because voting doesn’t seem all that important, be inspired by the words of Thomas Paine that she often quoted: “The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected.”
As you leave the polling place, give a nod to Susan B. Anthony.
Ruth Jones McClendon was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1996, representing District 120 in San Antonio.