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Women Fight for the Vote

Suffragists lobbied Congress for the right to vote throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but their activism took other forms as well. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony cast a ballot for a federal election in New York. She was arrested and put on trial. In court, she argued that her action was legal under the Fourteenth Amendment, which gave citizens the right to vote. Her highly publicized trial raised public awareness about woman suffrage. Women finally achieved national voting rights with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

Robbed of the fundamental privilege of citizenship, I am degraded from the status of a citizen to that of a subject

Susan B. Anthony, 1872

 

1 Image “The Women Who Dared,” cover illustration of Susan B. Anthony by... View All Images
1 Image An Account of…the Trial of Susan B. Anthony…, by Susan B.... View All Images
1 Image Petition of Susan B. Anthony for remission of fine imposed for voting... View All Images