Chapter 21: Section 3: The Rights of Women and Minorities

Chapter 21: Section 3: The Rights of Women and Minorities

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1T8NlbZ71s

Women's History Month | Susan B. Anthony

The women’s suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right​. Susan Brownell Anthony became one of the most visible leaders of the women’s suffrage movement.

​Susan B. Anthony was born on February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. Her father, Daniel, was a farmer and later a cotton mill owner and manager and was raised as a Quaker. Her mother, Lucy, came from a family that fought in the American Revolution and served in the Massachusetts state government. From an early age, Anthony was inspired by the Quaker belief that everyone was equal under God.

​When Congress passed the 14^th and 15^th amendments which give voting rights to African American men, Anthony and Stanton were angry and opposed the legislation because it did not include the right to vote for women. Their belief led them to split from other suffragists. They thought the amendments should also have given women the right to vote. They formed the National Woman Suffrage Association, to push for a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.

​In 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting. She was tried and fined $100 for her crime. This made many people angry and brought national attention to the suffrage movement.

​Anthony spent her life working for women’s rights. In 1888, she helped to merge the two largest suffrage associations into one, the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. She led the group until 1900. She traveled around the country giving speeches, gathering thousands of signatures on petitions, and lobbying Congress every year for women.

​Anthony died in 1906, 14 years before women were given the right to vote with the passage of the 19^th Amendment in 1920.

​Du Bois and the NAACP

​The NAACP was founded on the belief that nonviolent protests and legal actions were the best ways to ensure equal rights for all Americans. Du Bois became a member of the NAACP board and edited a journal of opinions called The Crisis. During its early years, the association won many legal cases to ensure the rights of minorities. Du Bois played an important role in the NAACP. In 1945 he represented the association in San Francisco, California, during the establishment of the United Nations. Over the years, the NAACP has persuaded presidents to end racial discrimination in hiring and military service. The organization grew from 60 people to a membership of more than 500,000 today. Its headquarters is in Baltimore, Maryland. One of the most famous lawyers for the NAACP was Thurgood Marshall, who later became a Supreme Court justice himself.​