Susan B. Anthony’s 200th Birthday

“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.”
–Susan B. Anthony, The Revolution

Today’s Doodle celebrates the 200th birthday of social reformer Susan B. Anthony, and 2020 also happens to mark the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the U.S.. Anthony fought tirelessly for decades to earn women the right to vote in the U.S and is recognized as one of the nation’s most important figures of the women’s suffrage movement. 

Susan Brownell Anthony was born on this day in 1820 in western Massachusetts, U.S. As a child, she was inspired by the idea that all people were born equal regardless of their race or gender. An introduction through her father to prominent abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison first ignited her passion for social change. In 1851, Anthony met reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton, beginning a 50-year partnership focused on women’s rights advocacy.

On November 5th, 1872, Anthony walked into a voting station in Rochester, New York and cast a vote in the presidential election, defying the law at the time, which denied women the right to vote. Two weeks later, she was fined $100 (over $2,100 today), drawing national attention to the cause. She refused to pay the fine, proclaiming, “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.” 

Anthony remained an active leader of the women’s suffrage movement for decades, including serving as president of the largest suffrage association in the U.S. and speaking to crowds across the country to lobby for change.

In 1920, nearly 50 years after Anthony first cast her ballot, women in America were finally granted the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment. Though this amendment did not include women of color, the franchise was extended through the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The U.S. Treasury Department honored Anthony’s legacy in 1979 by placing her image on the dollar coin, making her the first woman in history to be depicted on U.S. currency.

Early concepts and sketches of the Doodle

Discover more about the pioneering activist, Susan B. Anthony on Google Arts & Culture. Explore some of the iconic moments that helped shape the women’s suffrage movement, 100 years on from the passing of the 19th Amendment.