Susan Brownell Anthony was the most recognized leader of the American women's suffrage movement, devoting over 50 years to the cause of women's right to vote. Raised in a Quaker family committed to social reform, Anthony began as an abolitionist and temperance activist before focusing on women's rights.
With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869 and edited The Revolution newspaper. In 1872, she was arrested for voting illegally in Rochester, New York—her trial brought national attention to the cause. She traveled constantly, speaking, organizing, and petitioning.
Anthony never saw victory—the 19th Amendment granting women's suffrage passed in 1920, fourteen years after her death. The amendment is sometimes called the 'Susan B. Anthony Amendment' in her honor. Her single-minded dedication and organizational genius transformed women's rights from radical idea to inevitable reform. Her image appears on the U.S. dollar coin.