Susan B. Anthony Day 2027 is on Monday

About Susan B. Anthony Day

Susan B. Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts, and grew up in a Quaker family that later settled near Rochester, New York. The National Park Service traces her path from teaching, where she protested that women were paid a fraction of men's salaries, through temperance and antislavery work to women's rights. After meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 she became the movement's chief organizer, petitioning, lobbying and touring the country to speak. In 1869 the two founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, and Anthony led its successor, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, from 1892 until 1900.

Her best-known act came in the 1872 presidential election, when she and three of her sisters voted in Rochester. She was arrested and tried in 1873; the judge directed the jury to find her guilty and fined her $100, which she refused to pay. Anthony died in Rochester on March 13, 1906. The 19th Amendment, often called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, was first introduced in Congress in 1878 and was ratified on August 18, 1920.

There is no federal Susan B. Anthony Day. Florida lists Susan B. Anthony's Birthday, February 15, among its legal holidays in section 683.01 of the Florida Statutes. Wisconsin law names February 15 as a special observance day that schools mark with appropriate lessons. Massachusetts takes a different approach: its General Laws direct the governor to proclaim August 26, the date the 19th Amendment was certified in 1920, as Susan B. Anthony Day. Other states, schools and suffrage museums hold their own events around her birthday.

Historians also note the limits of her legacy. The National Park Service points to her clash with Frederick Douglass over the 15th Amendment, during which Anthony and Stanton used insulting arguments against Black men's voting rights, and to the multivolume History of Woman Suffrage she co-wrote, which leaves out suffragists of color.

Sources: National Park Service: Susan B. Anthony, Florida Statutes 683.01: Legal holidays (Florida Senate), Wisconsin Statutes 118.02: Special observance days, Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 6, Section 15E: Susan B. Anthony Day, National Archives: 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. How we check dates.

How to mark Susan B. Anthony Day

• Read the record of Anthony's 1873 trial or her speech defending her vote, and talk about why she refused to pay the fine.
• Visit the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House in Rochester, or Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, in person or through their online exhibits.
• Check your own voter registration and help a friend or family member register or find their polling place.
• Teach a lesson on the many women who fought for the vote, including Black suffragists such as Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell.
• Look up when women first voted in your state, many years before 1920 in some western states, and share what you find.

Susan B. Anthony Day dates