How to Celebrate Susan B. Anthony's Birthday

Can you imagine a world in which women were not allowed to vote, much less attend college, own property, or even have legal custody of their own children? Susan B. Anthony could. It was the world she lived in, but she was determined to change it. On February 15 you can say not only "Happy Birthday" but also "Thank you, Susan."

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Party Drinks
• Party Food
• CDs
• Toys
• Not For Ourselves Alone Videos
• airline tickets to Rochester, New York

1. Visit Susan B. Anthony's home in Rochester, New York, where she lived and worked during the height of her campaign for womens rights. It's now a National Historic Landmark and the site of numerous seminars, exhibits and lectures.

2. Watch the video "Not for Ourselves Alone - The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony," produced for PBS by Ken Burns and Paul Barnes. It's a colorful and dramatic introduction to the work of the two renowned feminists.

3. Read Susan's article, Woman's Half-Century of Evolution, written for the North American Review in 1902. Search the Internet by typing in the article title, wrapped in quotation marks, at a major search engine like Google or Yahoo.

4. Vote. And when you do, remember that when Susan B. Anthony had the audacity to try it in 1872 she was arrested.

5. Find a cause you care about as much as Susan cared about abolition, temperance and women's rights, and work for it - whatever it is.

6. Volunteer to help at a school in your town. Susan B. Anthony crusaded for schools, colleges and universities to admit women and ex-slaves, and for equal education for boys and girls.

7. Throw a "Happy Birthday to Susan" party and have the kind of fun she never had. Make music, play games, pass out toys. And drink a toast to Susan, whose stern Quaker father forbade all such frivolity.

Tips & Warnings

• If you visit Susan B. Anthony's house, take time to explore the surrounding nine-block Susan B. Anthony Preservation District. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places as one of the last intact 19th-century middle-class neighborhoods in the country.
• To learn more about Susan B. Anthony's house, its calendar of events, and the ongoing campaign to preserve and expand its archives, see susanbanthonyhouse.org.