Susan B. Anthony was an American leader in the fight for women's right to vote. Born in 1820, she spent over fifty years organizing, speaking, and working to change laws that treated women as less than equal citizens.

When Anthony was young, many American women couldn't vote, own property after marriage, or serve on juries. Anthony believed this was unjust. She traveled constantly, giving speeches and organizing groups of women and men who supported voting rights. In 1872, she deliberately voted in a presidential election even though it was illegal for women to do so. She was arrested, tried, and fined $100, which she refused to pay.

Anthony worked closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other activists. Together they formed organizations, published newspapers, and presented arguments to Congress year after year. The work was exhausting and often discouraging. Anthony didn't live to see the victory: she died in 1906, fourteen years before the Nineteenth Amendment finally gave women the right to vote in 1920.

Today, Anthony appears on the dollar coin, and her name represents the long struggle for equal rights. When people speak of someone being a Susan B. Anthony, they may mean a person who fights tirelessly for justice and equality, even when success seems impossibly far away.