Earlier this week, President Donald Trump issued a posthumous pardon for women’s rights leader Susan B. Anthony but the museum dedicated to the late suffragette objected to the pardon, saying that she wouldn’t have wanted to be pardoned.
Shortly after Trump’s pardon, the Susan B Anthony Museum published a note titled, “Objection! Mr. President, Susan B. Anthony must decline your offer of a pardon today.”
In the note, Susan B. Anthony Museum president Deborah L. Hughes said, “Anthony wrote in her diary in 1873 that her trial for voting was ‘The greatest outrage History ever witnessed.’ She was not allowed to speak as a witness in her own defense, because she was a woman. At the conclusion of arguments, Judge Hunt dismissed the jury and pronounced her guilty. She was outraged to be denied a trial by jury. She proclaimed, ‘I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.’ To pay would have been to validate the proceedings. To pardon Susan B. Anthony does the same.”
Hughes said that those seeking to honor Susan B Anthony, should adopt “a clear stance against any form of voter suppression.”
She continued, “Support for the Equal Rights Amendment would be well received. Advocacy for human rights for all would be splendid. Anthony was also a strong proponent of sex education, fair labor practices, excellent public education, equal pay for equal work, and elimination of all forms of discrimination.”
Trump pardoned Susan B. Anthony on August 18th — the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. When he announced the pardon, Trump mused, “She was never pardoned, did you know that? She was never pardoned.”
Trump announces full pardon for Susan B. Anthony on 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) August 18, 2020
Anthony was arrested for voting in 1872 pic.twitter.com/9SxVqGNjW9
Trump’s decision to pardon Anthony was part of a wider push by the president to attempt to court women voters in November. He has recently boasted on Twitter, “I have done more for WOMEN than just about any President in HISTORY.”
