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People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice ofAmerica.
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In the eighteen-fifties, women in the United States began to tryto gain the same rights as men. One woman was a leader in thecampaign to gain women the right to vote. I’m Stan Busby.
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And I’m Shirley Griffith. Today wetell about a fighter for rights for women, Susan B. Anthony.
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In seventeen-seventy-six, a new nation declared its freedom fromBritain. The Declaration of Independence was the document written toexpress the reasons for seeking that freedom. It stated that all menwere created equal. It said that all men had the right to life,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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Not every citizen of the new United States of America had oneimportant right, however. That was the right to vote. At first, theonly people permitted to vote in the United States were white menwho owned property and could read. By eighteen-sixty, most whitemale citizens over the age of twenty-one had the right to vote.
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution gaveblack male citizens the right to vote. These amendments were passedin eighteen-sixty-eight and eighteen-seventy.
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Women were not really full citizens in America in theeighteen-hundreds. They had no economic independence.
For example, everything a woman owned when she got marriedbelonged to her husband. If a married woman worked, the money shemade belonged to her husband. In addition, women had no politicalpower. They did not have the right to vote.
In the eighteen-fifties, women organized in an effort to gainvoting rights. Their campaign was called the women’s suffragemovement. Suffrage means the right to vote. American women sought togain that right for more than seventy years.
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One of the leaders of the movement was Susan B. Anthony ofMassachusetts. Miss Anthony was a teacher. She believed that womenneeded economic and personal independence. She also believed thatthere was no hope for social improvement in the United States untilwomen were given the same rights as men. The rights included theright to vote in public elections.
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Susan B. Anthony was born in eighteen-twenty. Her parents weremembers of the Quaker religion. She became one too. The Quakersbelieved that the rights of women should be honored. They were thefirst religious group where women shared the leadership with men.
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As a young woman, Susan had strong beliefs about justice andequality for women and for black people. And she was quick to speakout against what she believed was not just.
Many young men wanted to marry her. But she could not considermarrying a man who was not as intelligent as she. She once said: “Ican never understand why intelligent girls should want to marryfools just to get married. Many are willing to do so. But I am not.”
She did meet some young men who were intelligent. But it alwaysseemed that they expected women to be their servants, not theirequals.
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Susan B. Anthony became a school teacher in New York state. Sherealized that women could never become full citizens without somepolitical power. They could never get such power until they got theright to vote. She went from town to town in New York state tryingto get women interested in their right to vote. But they did notseem interested. Miss Anthony felt this was because women were notable to do anything for themselves. They had no money, or propertyof their own. The struggle seemed long and hard. She said:
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“As I went from town to town, I understood more and more the evilwe must fight. The evil is that women cannot change anything as longas they must depend on men for their very lives. Women cannot changeanything until they themselves are independent. They cannot be freeuntil they have the legal right to own property and to keep themoney they make by working.”
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Miss Anthony went to every city, town and village in New Yorkstate. She organized meetings in schools, churches, and publicplaces. Everywhere she went, she carried pamphlets urging rights forwomen.
She urged the lawmakers of New York to change the state law andgive women the right to own property. Her campaign in New Yorkfailed at that time. But elsewhere the struggle for women’s rightswas making progress.
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In eighteen-fifty-one, Susan B. Anthony met Elizabeth CadyStanton. Missus Stanton also supported equal rights for women.Missus Stanton had many children. She needed to remain at home toraise her large family. Miss Anthony, however, was not married. Shewas free to travel, to speak, and to organize for the women’s rightsmovement. The two women cooperated in leading the fight to gainrights for women in the United States.
Their first important success came in eighteen-sixty when NewYork finally approved a married woman’s law. For the first time inNew York, a married woman could own property. And, she had a rightto the money she was paid for work she did.
At last, Miss Anthony’s campaign was beginning to show results.The campaign spread to other states.
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The end of the American Civil War in eighteen-sixty-five freedNegroes from slavery. Susan B. Anthony felt that there was stillmuch to be done to get full freedom — for Negroes and also forwomen. She began to campaign for the right for Negroes and women tovote.
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution wasapproved in eighteen-sixty-eight. It gave Negro men the right tovote. But it did not give women the right to vote.
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Susan B. Anthony led efforts to have voting rights for womenincluded in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Herefforts were not successful. Then Miss Anthony decided to test thelegal basis of the Fourteenth Amendment. She did this during thepresidential election of eighteen-seventy-two.
On election day, Miss Anthony led a group of women to vote inRochester, New York. Two weeks later, Miss Anthony was arrested. Shewas charged with voting although she had no legal right to do so.
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Before her trial, Susan B. Anthony traveled around New Yorkstate. She spoke to many groups about the injustice of denying womenthe right to vote. She said:
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“Our Democratic, Republican government is based on the idea thatevery person shall have a voice and a vote in making the laws andputting them to work. It is we, the people — all the people — notjust white men or men only, who formed this nation. We formed it toget liberty not just for half of us — not just for half of ourchildren — but for all, for women as well as men.
“Is the right to vote a necessary right of citizens. To my mind,it is a most important right. Without it, all other rights arenothing.”
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Susan B. Anthony was tried and found guilty of violating the law.She was ordered to pay one-hundred dollars as a punishment. She saidthe law was wrong. She refused to pay.
Miss Anthony then led efforts to gain voting rights for womenthrough a new amendment to the Constitution. She traveled across thecountry to campaign for such an amendment until she was seventy-fiveyears old. In nineteen-oh-four, she spoke to a committee of theUnited States Senate for the last time. The committee was discussingthe proposal for an amendment to the Constitution giving women theright to vote. She knew the victory would come. But she also knew itwould not come while she was alive.
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Susan B. Anthony died in nineteen-oh-six at the age ofeighty-six. Thirteen years later, in nineteen-nineteen, Congresspassed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The amendmentstated that the right to vote shall not be denied because of aperson’s sex.
The amendment had to be approved by three-fourths of the states.It won final approval on August twenty-sixth, nineteen-twenty. Itwas called the Anthony Amendment, to honor Susan B. Anthony.
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VOICE 1:
This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. Itwas produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Stan Busby.
VOICE 2:
And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for anotherPeople in America program on the Voice of America.