Anthony in spotlight for her 205th

BY CLAIRE O’CALLAHAN

The Berkshire Eagle

ADAMS — February is a month of celebration for Adams, the birthplace of suffragist Susan B. Anthony, in honor of her 205th birthday.

The festivities started on Sunday, with a birthday event at the Adams Free Library, which featured a keynote speech by historian Jeanne Gehret about the Anthony family’s history, with some of Anthony’s descendants in attendance.

On the actual day of her birthday (Feb. 15), admission will be free at the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace

Museum. The museum has other events in the works and is also working on a special exhibit to coincide with the occasion.

James Capuzzi, the executive director of the museum, said Anthony continues to speak to people so many years later because the issues she fought for remain pressing. While women can now vote, inequality persists and even the right to vote is under attack.

“I think engaging with history can be a helpful reminder that ‘oh, this is still relevant.’ It feels like it was a long time ago, but in the U.S. context it’s really not, and there are still things you can do to be like Susan and to be like the women that were part of her movement,” said Capuzzi.

Part of that engagement is also contending with the aspects of Anthony’s life and philosophy that have made her a contested figure for some, Capuzzi said.

In recent decades, Anthony has received scrutiny over her position on the right to abortion, and has been adopted by people and organizations that seek to control and limit women’s autonomy over their own bodies and futures. She has also been critiqued for her position on who should gain the right to vote, and when.

In the 1860s, when it became clear that the proposed 15th Amendment would grant newly emancipated Black men, but not women, the right to vote, Anthony took a firm position in opposition to the law. If Black men and women couldn’t win the right to vote at the same time, white, educated women should come first, she said. Some historians point out the argument ignored Black women, whose intersecting identities as both Black and women went unacknowledged in the debate.

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