Questions for Reflection
1) Susan B. Anthony violated both federal and New York state law by voting in the 1972 Presidential election. Anthony argued the 14th Amendment should be interpreted to extend the right to vote to women. Do you think citizens have the moral obligation to challenge unjust laws? Does it make a difference whether the law is a state or federal law?
2) The prosecuting lawyer in U.S. v. Susan B. Anthony argued that children are citizens and yet cannot vote, and therefore the 14th Amendment should not be interpreted to extend voting rights to all U.S. citizens. Do you think this is a sound argument? Why?
3) Social change has occurred through each branch of government and in various ways including legislation, court decisions, constitutional amendments, and executive branch actions. What are the merits and drawbacks of changing society through each method?
4)
Women Who Shaped America Theme Question: In which ways did Susan B Anthony change America? Do you think these changes would have occurred without her actions?
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Two weeks before the June 17, 1873 trial of U.S. v. Susan B. Anthony, the New York Daily Graphic printed this graphic on its covered with the title "The Woman Who Dared".
Notice that Anthony is depicted wearing men's boots and a woman in the background is wearing a police uniform while men behind her on the right are carrying groceries and a baby. The story said if Susan B. Anthony were acquitted at the upcoming trial, the world would soon come to look like the cartoon.
Even though Anthony was already famous, the trial made her a household name. The Associated Press wrote daily reports of the trial, reprinted in papers nationwide. The trial’s national coverage helped the Women’s Rights movement redirect its focus to women’s suffrage, away from the prior focus of property rights for married women and the right for women to speak in public.
Replica source: Exhibit B, Transcript of the Hearing, September 15, 1873, National Archives, Records of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, Record Group 21, National Archives Identifier 278300, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/278300
Indictment for Illegal Voting, September 15, 1873, National Archives, Records of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, Record Group 21, National Archives Identifier 278295, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/278295?objectPage=2
