Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906). She died 14 years before the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. So we know she didn’t do that. You see, I have been thinking lately: hero worship. We do it alot in the USA, from George Washington to Martin Luther King, Jr. But do we ever ask why we are expected to worship and revere these people?
Anyways, I want to know specifically what if anything Anthony accomplished in her life? And yes, why do we worship her now? Don’t misunderstand me here. Maybe she did alot. I honestly don’t know. But I certainly can’t think of even one thing (that I know of at least) that she did. So maybe other people can illuminate me in this area.
And as always, thank you in advance to all who reply:)
We do? She certainly didn’t do it alone by a long shot ( i.e. Stanton, Mott and a cast of thousands more ), but I think quite a few folks would make the argument that she was a crucial voice in establishing the movement that would finally achieve women’s suffrage.
You want us to write you, like, a school report on Susan B. Anthony? She’s got a lengthy wikipedia entry, if you’re interested in why she’s famous, take a few minutes and read it.
I remember a song from grade school. It went something like:
“Where would we be?
Without Susan B.
Susan B. Anthony…”
That’s all the lyrics I remember. I assume that it meant that we’re supposed to fill in the blanks. Either that or I forgot the lyrics.
Oh, I know. She made some people $0.75 richer when they were supposed to get a quarter, but instead got a dollar coin that looked suspiciously like a quarter.
And the conclusion you drew from it was that she didn’t accomplish anything because she died before women got the right to vote? Are you perhaps overlooking the possibility that her efforts - her protests, her speeches, her publishing, her work in uniting suffragists into one organization - made that happen sooner than it otherwise would have?
She was one of the organizers of a major political movement. Now I know that “community organizing” has taken a rap lately, but you really should try to herd cats to get a taste of how difficult it is. And remember, herding cats is easy next to political organizing.
As sort of a half-hearted defense of the OP, I’ll note that the main dictionary definition of accomplish is
Since women didn’t get the right to vote during Anthony’s lifetime you could argue she didn’t accomplish that goal. But I think that’s a very literal reading - in the sense of “did she do anything,” which seems to be what Jim B. means, it’s reasonable to say she did a lot even if one of her primary goals was not completed during her life.
She was also an abolitionist, IIRC. I don’t think she was at the forefront of the movement, but my point is, she wasn’t concerned strictly with women’s rights.
