Failure Is Impossible

January 30, 1995
This collection of excerpts from speeches and letters by women's rights advocate Anthony (1820-1906) reflects her activism on many issues, including female suffrage, the abolition of slavery, temperance, domestic violence and legal rights of married women. Sherr, a correspondent for ABC's 20/20 and coauthor of Susan B. Anthony Slept Here, accompanies Anthony's eloquent words with informed biographical essays. Anthony's spirited 50-year fight to gain the vote for women is detailed here, as well as the anger she expressed when friend and antislavery activist Frederick Douglass excluded women from his fight for voting rights for African Americans. After being jailed for voting illegally, Anthony wrote, ``It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, but we, the whole people who formed this union.'' The 19th Amendment, granting voting rights to women, was passed 14 years after Anthony's death. Illustrations.