Monday is Great American’s Day. Most people use this day to honor and remember famous Presidents from our country’s history.

But there are other famous Americans who have left a lasting impression on American culture and history.

Susan B. Anthony is one of these. She was born in 1820 in Massachusetts and lived until 1906. The 19th Amendment was written by her and is a result of her tireless efforts to protect voting rights for everyone.

Anthony is probably one of the most widely known women’s rights activist of the suffragist movement. And shockingly enough, her fight for women’s rights started in an unlikely place over a problem women still face today — in a school over income discrimination.

Outraged that she had been paid only $2.50 while her male counterparts were making $10.00 a month, Anthony began her fight for equal rights.

Other factors played a part as well. For example, she was a member of the anti-slavery act, but since she was woman she was not allowed to speak. It was the things like that, as well as her Quaker background, which allowed her to rise and become one of the greatest suffragist we’ve ever known.

Like most great activist, Anthony had her run-ins with the law. Due to her many speeches in the west, she had empowered women to vote, even when they weren’t allowed, getting her, her sister and a group of other women arrested.

She was also had to pay fares for protesting at the government’s expense. She created petitions, went up against congress, and did everything that was just about as wrong as a woman could do all in the name of Justice. She truly changed America. In fact, the 19th Amendment that allows everyone the right to vote is nicknamed the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.

She even has a coin. She is the first woman to ever receive a minted coin, and the first woman to ever have an amendment named after her. If she’s not a Great American then who is?

More cool facts about Anthony are:

• She was involved in the anti-slavery movement.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton once said about her, “There she stood with her good earnest face and genial smile, dressed in gray silk, hat and all the same color, relieved with pale blue ribbons, the perfection of neatness and sobriety. I liked her thoroughly, and why I did not at once invite her home with me to dinner, I do not know.”
• She was known to carry around an alligator purse, because it was a symbol of feminine freedom since women weren’t allowed to have bank accounts.
• In 1904 Anthony was over the International Council of Women in Berlin. She also became an honorary president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance.

– http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/susan-b-anthony.htm

– http://susanbanthonyhouse.org/her-story/biography.php

– http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905

– http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/susan-b-anthony