Is It a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?

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Anthony’s speech helps students understand the Constitution as a living document. She uses a variety of techniques of legal reasoning and interpretation to challenge other, exclusionary uses of the document. She bases an argument for change on an interpretation of a founding document. Reconstruction is a challenging era for students to understand. Anthony’s speech captures the complexities of the Reconstruction Amendments and how they opened new avenues for disenfranchised groups to assert their rights. It also explores the interrelationship of the women’s suffragists with other movements. Anthony highlights the cultural, social, and political aspects of women’s struggle for equal rights. The speech does not simply assert women’s right to vote, but also more broadly addresses the subordinate position of women within the home and in other areas of public policy.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: High School Lesson Plan created for Voices of Democracy by Michael J. Steudeman

Susan B. Anthony-She’s Worth a Mint!

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Susan B. Anthony was a teacher, a speaker and an American civil rights leader who fought for rights for African Americans and women. She spoke out against slavery and fought for suffrage, or the right to vote for African Americans and women. Susan cast her vote in the 1872 presidential election and was arrested for doing so. Women were finally given the right to vote in 1920 with the 19th amendment. Although Susan B. Anthony had passed away in 1906, it is sometimes called the Susan B. Anthony amendment in honor of her arduous work and steadfast beliefs regarding suffrage. What examples can we draw from Susan B. Anthony? In this lesson, students will learn about Susan B. Anthony and her fight for what she believed in. Students will identify Susan B. Anthony’s actions that make her an agent for change. TIME Three 30-minute class periods OBJECTIVE Students will… read and understand a historical biography about Susan B. Anthony. make connections to Susan B. Anthony’s contributions to the Women’s Rights Movement and suffrage. write in response to reading. Identify actions of Susan B. Anthony that made her an agent of change. Identify a personal agent for change and their qualifying characteristics create a Susan B. Anthony coin mobile.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: National Women's Mueseum

The Audacity of a Vote: Susan B. Anthony’s Arrest

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In this lesson, students analyze a daring challenge to the legal and social order of the time: Susan B. Anthony’s casting of an illegal ballot in the 1872 presidential election. Anthony was ultimately put on trial, convicted, and fined $100 for her “crime.” In this lesson, students close read an excerpt from Anthony’s speech Is It a Crime for Women to Vote? in which Anthony defended her actions. The speech, written prior to Anthony’s trial in 1873, contains many themes that resonate with contemporary debates about membership in American society. At a time when voter suppression, gerrymandering, and election interference dominate the headlines, this lesson prompts students to draw connections between the past and present, especially around acts of civil disobedience, the role of voting in a democracy, and the meaning of equality.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Facing History and Ourselves

Women’s Suffrage in the United States – Teach a Girl to Lead

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The goal of this module is to provide resources and information about the history of women’s vote in the U.S. Looking at the women’s suffrage movement provides a framework for exploring the changing role of women in politics and society in the 19th and 20th centuries. The history of suffrage offers an opportunity to examine women’s roles at critical points in the nation’s history, and to think about the impact of women’s voting behavior on politics in our time. Activities and discussion questions are designed to explore the changing role of women in society and in politics. The module includes ideas for developing lessons on women’s suffrage and integrating the issue of suffrage into lessons on US history and politics, and to consider the impact of full suffrage on politics and society today.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Rutgers Eagleton Instutue of Poltics Teach a Girl to Lead

Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Suffrage

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This brief lesson and collection of primary sources look at the arrest of Susan B. Anthony following her casting her ballot in the 1872 Presidential election in her hometown of Rochester, New York. Documents include U.S vs. Susan B. Anthony, Indictment for Illegal Voting; U.S. vs. Susan B. Anthony, Exhibit B, a transcript of the hearing including examination of witnesses by the defense and prosecution attorneys, and Susan B. Anthony s testimony in her own defense; and U.S. vs. Susan B. Anthony, Record of Conviction. It also offers extension activities and links to additional primary sources.

Material Type: Lesson Plan, Primary Source

Author: The National Archives