THE FIGHT TO BE HEARD

A CENTURY AFTER U.S. WOMEN WON THE RIGHT TO VOTE, WE CELEBRATE THOSE COURAGEOUS ACTIVISTS AND THEIR LEGACY.

- RACHEL HARTIGAN

On August 18, 1920, the day that Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment, clinching its passage, suffragist leader Alice Paul unfurled the National Woman’s Party ratification flag from the balcony of the organization’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Each time a state ratified the amendment, Paul sewed a star on the banner, until she had 36 and women had gained the right to vote. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (LOC)

‘WELL I HAVE BEEN & GONE & DONE IT!!’

SUSAN B. ANTHONY WROTE TO A FRIEND ON NOVEMBER 5, 1872.

THAT DAY ANTHONY and her three sisters managed to vote in Rochester, New York. Nearly a century after the nation’s founding, seven years after the end of the Civil War, and two years after the 15th Amendment granted voting rights to African-American men, it was still illegal for most women to vote. Anthony and her sisters had been sure they would be denied. Indeed, that’s what they had hoped would happen. They wanted grounds for a lawsuit.

But Anthony, a well-known and intimidating figure, couldn’t help herself. A few days earlier, she had browbeaten the young officials who were registering voters at a local barbershop into putting the women’s names on the voting rolls. When that proved an unexpected success, she spread the word.

On Election Day, some 15 women in Rochester voted. “We are in for a fine agitation in Rochester,” wrote Anthony to her friend and fellow campaigner Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Although she hadn’t expected to vote, she knew her defiant act would have ramifications.

Two weeks later, the opportunity she’d been aiming for arrived on her doorstep in the form of a well-mannered federal officer. He was there to arrest her.