President Donald Trump this week posthumously pardoned Susan B. Anthony, the famous women’s rights icon who was arrested after illegally voting in 1872. Shortly afterward, the museum named in her honor issued a statement, denying his offer.
“She was never pardoned,” Trump said in the announcement, according to The New York Times. “Did you know that? She was never pardoned. What took so long?”
“She was guilty for voting,” Trump said on Tuesday, “and we’re going to be signing a full and complete pardon.”
Historians stepped forward to answer that question: She wouldn’t have wanted to be pardoned because the suffragist didn’t believe she had done anything wrong, some historians said, according to NPR. Even Kathy Hochul, the lieutenant governor of New York, said that Trump should rescind his pardon.
The executive director of the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House in Rochester, New York, joined those protesting voices and issued a statement, denying Trump’s pardon.
“Objection! Mr. President, Susan B. Anthony must decline your offer of a pardon,” Deborah L. Hughes wrote in a statement.
“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 went on to say that if people wished to honor Anthony’s memory today, they would take a clear stance against any form of voter suppression, among other things.
“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.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 7:20 PM.