The Woman Who Dared

This is a women story book. Susan B. Anthony’s trial on the charge of illegal voting has all the makings of a great story. Anthony, a master of self-promotion, engineered the gripping drama and then made sure that events received broad media attention as they unfolded. However, the American woman suffrage movement, including Anthony’s trial, receded from historical memory after ratification of the 19th Amendment. Fortunately, the topic enjoyed a renaissance beginning in the 1990s, culminating in the 2004 HBO feature film Iron-Jawed Angels, starring Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank as the fiery Alice Paul. Journalist Lynn Sherr made Anthony’s writings widely accessible in 1996, and scholar Kathleen Barry’s biography, originally published in 1988, was reprinted in 2000. Two PBS documentaries focusing on the suffrage movement and Anthony’s life, including one produced by Ken Burns, were released in 1995 and 1999. The Anthony trial was even referenced in the 'Equal Fights' episode of the animated Powerpuff Girls series in 2002. Meanwhile, primary sources related to the Anthony trial became widely available. The account of the trial, originally published by a Rochester newspaper in 1874, was reprinted in 2002 and 2003, and a website devoted to the trial, including a plethora of primary source documents, was created by University of Missouri, Kansas City law professor Douglas Linder in 2001.