Angela Potter, age 16, of Twin Falls, Ida., for her question:
WHO WAS SUSAN B. ANTHONY?
Susan B. Anthony was an outstanding American reformer who led the struggle to gain the vote for women. On July 2, 1979, the United States Mint honored her work by issuing the Susan B. Anthony coin dollar.
Anthony was born in 1820 in Adams, Mass. Her family finally settled in Rochester, New York, and she taught school from the age of 16 until she was 30 years old.
Anthony was opposed to the use of liquor and advocated the immediate end of slavery. For a time she worked for the American Anti Slavery society, organizing meetings and frequently giving lectures.
In 1863, during the Civil War, Anthony founded the Woman's Loyal League to fight for emancipation of slaves. She also worked with a friend, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, concentrating on an effort to reform New York State laws discriminating against women.
Anthony organized women all over New York to campaign for legal reform. She and Stanton became convinced that women would not gain their rights or be effective in promoting reforms until they had the vote and nationwide suffrage became their goal after the Civil War.
In 1868, Anthony and Stanton organized the National Woman Suffrage Association to work for a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. Although the newly freed slaves were granted the vote by the 15th Amendment, women of all races continued to be excluded.
From 1868 to 1870 the two women published a newspaper called Revolution as a way to focus on injustices suffered by women. To dramatize her fight, Anthony defiantly registered and cast a ballot in the 1872 Presidential election and, when arrested and convicted, refused to pay the $100 fine.
Anthony devoted 50 years to overcoming the nation's resistance to woman suffrage but died in 1906 before the 19th amendment was adopted on August 26, 1920.
Anthony went to Europe in 1883, met women's rights activists there and in 1883 helped form the International Council of Women, representing 48 countries.
For a time in her younger years, Anthony supported dress reform and wore bloomers to help press her point. But, she decided to give them up because they interfered with her main crusade, which was to get women the right to vote.
According to reports, one of the events that made her an active reformer came as a result of a rejection at an anti temperance meeting in Albany, N.Y. When she got up to make some observations, she was told that "the Sisters were not invited there to speak but to listen and learn." On that she left and organized the Woman's State Temperance Society of New York.
At the age of 80 she resigned as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association but she continued to be a regular speaker at conventions until her death at the age of 86.