In 1879, Massachusetts allow women to vote in school elections. Lucy Stone went to register, but when she discovered that she would have to sign as Mr.s Blackwell, she refused, and so forfeited her opportunity to vote. Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony were delighted. Mr.s Stanton wrote to Mrs. Stone : "Nothing has been done in the woman's rights movement for some time that so rejoiced my heart as the announcement by you of a woman's right to her name." Susan Anthony wrote that she "rejoiced that you have declared, by actual doing, that a woman has a name, and may retain it throughout her life." Some women in the movement disapproved, however, and wrote to tell her so. She replied that "A thousand times more opposition was made to a woman's claim to speak in public, " and continued to use the name of Lucy Stone for the rest of her life. Those who followed her example were called "Lucy Stoners." But in spite of Lucy Stone and the Lucy Stoners, the law has been slow to acknowledge the right of a woman to her own name. More than a hundred years later, in the 1970s, the Supreme Court would uphold an Alabama law which required a woman to use her husband's name. Miriam Gurko
About This Quote

The first women's rights convention was held on March 25, 1848, and only twenty-six women attended the first National Women's Rights Convention. Many of the women attending this convention were abolitionists, and the names of some of the prominent attendees were: Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. The purpose of the convention was to discuss ways to elevate women's status and their role in society.

By the end of the Civil War, the number of women attending conventions had grown to several hundred, and by 1870 they were directing their focus toward suffrage. Lucy Stone was one of the leading leaders at that time. She was born in 1818 and died in 1895.

She attended meetings and meetings of different organizations and eventually became a speaker. Her involvement in women's rights caused her to refuse to use her husband's name in public documents when she registered to vote in 1879.

Source: The Ladies Of Seneca Falls: The Birth Of The Womens Rights Movement

Some Similar Quotes
  1. I just don't see why the past has to matter. - Cassandra Clare
  2. Do you think we can be friends?” I asked. He stared up at the ceiling. “Probably not, but we can pretend. - Priya Ardis
  3. Vane grabbed me. “DuLac, let’s chat.” British-speak for “Stand still while I yell at you. - Priya Ardis
  4. For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. <span style="margin:15px; display:block"></span>Not like hermits who... - Hermann Hesse
  5. Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny. - Steve Maraboli
More Quotes By Miriam Gurko
  1. [Giving context to how radical bloomers as an article of clothing were at the time]" The women shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord...
  2. An angry discussion followed, during which belligerent ministers, who had come to the convention in an attempt to disrupt it, read aloud passages from the Bible to disprove Antoinette Brown's contention of equality. They read passages like "Let your women be silent in the churches;...
  3. Almost from the beginning, Lucy Stone had run-ins with the established code of female propriety. Every Sunday morning the students had to sit through a long chapel service. Lucy, who suffered from headaches, took her hat off one morning. She was charged by the Ladies'...
  4. .. on May 1, 1855, Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell were married. Before the minister began the ceremony, Henry read the protest which he and Lucy had prepared: "While acknowledging our mutual affection by publicly assuming the relation of husband and wife, yet in justice...
  5. Equal rights meant just that, rights for both blacks and women, with the association working for both at the same time. Women should not be told to "stand back and wait." [Frederick] Douglas said that women should be generous and allow the Negro to get...
Related Topics