What would Susan B. Anthony wear to vote?

Rochester, NY–Sunday morning, as I prepared to vote at the Susan B. Anthony Museum & House, I pondered what she would wear if she had taken my place. This question may seem trivial, but from reading her letters and biography, I know that she paid attention to such things.

When Susan first ventured out on her own as a schoolteacher, she splurged on colorful clothing. A few years after beginning her public life, she drew considerable unwanted attention by adopting the bloomer costume consisting of gathered trousers visible under a dress that covered the knees.

Her desire never to repeat the ridicule and catcalls of that revolutionary outfit prompted her to wear high-necked black gowns that didn’t call attention to themselves. Thereafter, she was described as modest and quietly dressed, though she took care to buy good quality clothes.

Here’s my version of campaign dress at the carriage house where we actually voted. In honor of Susan, I chose a black turtleneck, fleece, and (with a nod to bloomers), slacks.  Since she was prepared to campaign in all kinds of weather, I packed a black hat and gloves for this chilly Rochester morning. My only accessory was a red scarf to commemorate her signature red (paisley) shawl, which she wore to help reporters pick her out of a crowd. Eminently practical, she was, and media savvy.

This is the first year that Susan B. Anthony’s historic home has joined the list of polling places. I rejoiced in the opportunity to celebrate this landmark occasion.

Voting at the Susan B. Anthony Museum & House

My inner compass knows the way to her home because I served as a docent there beginning in 1994. The following year, I published my children’s biography of her to celebrate the 75th anniversary of women’s suffrage. For 25 years after that, I portrayed her in costume. Here’s an article I posted around Election Day several years ago.

Susan’s been my heroine ever since I first got to “know” her. While portraying her, I proclaimed some of her most memorable deeds and words. Here are two you will probably recognize:

Men their rights and nothing more. Women their rights and nothing less.

Failure is impossible.

But here’s a poignant quote you probably haven’t seen. She spoke these words on her deathbed to Anna Howard Shaw, her successor as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association:

I don’t know much about the other life [afterlife], but this I do believe, that if anyone there can help or influence those who are left behind in this life, I will come to you. If the existence beyond the grave is, as most of us believe, a conscious existence, I do not see how my interest in this cause can change or why I should desire less to work for it than when I am here in the body….and if it is possible, I shall always be where I am most needed. Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Ida Husted Harper, p. 1906.

My husband and I rose early to participate in this historic event, needing to get on with our day. We were second in line after a Black minister, who has done much to bring equality to our city, home to one of the highest crime rates in the U.S..

Susan’s activism for Black and female suffrage never achieved its complete goal, but it did earn voting rights for African-American men. Though she lamented that her life’s work had not helped her own half of the population, I believe she would’ve warmed to this highly educated, civic-minded minister.

Susan B. Anthony’s colleagues

Yesterday I voted with thankfulness for all the women who came before and after Susan to guarantee my right to vote:

• For Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who, after being barred from full participation at the World Antislavery Convention in London, channeled their anger into hosting the Seneca Falls Convention on women’s rights in 1848.
• For the 15 women with Susan, who set out early on a November morning in 1872 from this very to cast their illegal ballots.
• For Alice Paul and her contemporaries, who endured starvation and force feedings to pressure Congress to pass the Nineteenth Amendment.

Passing Susan B. Anthony’s torch

At 9:15, just moments after the polls opened for the day, we processed our ballots. Already, as we left, at least a hundred men and women were waiting in line for the privilege to do what Susan paved the way for us to do. Many of them, including our new friend the minister, brought children.

Afterwards, I paused for a moment in front of her home.

I didn’t have a child with me. But I did have a single copy of my biography of Susan. This  I gave to a white-haired photographer who, I know, will read it and pass it on.

Here’s to the hope that another generation of women and girls will cherish this right that is so characteristically American.