Gather your friends around and help them picture the scene. Susan B. Anthony is ready to move in with Matilda Joslyn Gage, Sara Andrews Spencer, Lillie Devereau Blake, and Phoebe W. Couzins to crash the July 4th, 1876 centennial event in Philadelphia. The platform is filled with dignitaries and the co-conspirators wait until after the reading of the Declaration of Independence.
Here is what happened: Anthony marched up to the platform filled with centennial officials. She formally presented the Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States, an update on the declaration from back in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York.
The document sent the message that the nation must not turn its back on the unfinished American Revolution by denying women equality and the right to vote.
After delivering the proclamation, Anthony and others distributed copies to the crowd and left the centennial hall. THE RESULT: Pandemonium. General Howley, chairman, shouted for order to be restored.
THE OUTCOME: Suffrage activists held their own independence celebration in Philadelphia.
HOLD YOUR OWN CELEBRATION THIS YEAR AS YOU PLAN FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL CENTENNIAL OBSERVATION OF VOTES FOR WOMEN.
IN 2020, AMERICAN WOMEN WILL HAVE BEEN VOTING FOR 100 YEARS.
AUDIO ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED on July 4, 1876 at the Fourth of July national centennial, as told by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her memoir, Eighty Years and More. Read by Amelia Bowen for Suffrage Wagon News Channel.
NOW, LET’S FIRE UP THE BARBEQUE GRILL in 2018 and have fun!
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