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1876
Document
Gilded Age
Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States
Susan B. Anthony, Centennial, Philadelphia
"We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever."
About this source
Presented at the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia after women were denied a place in the official program. Anthony and her colleagues staged their own declaration, showing how the nation's anniversaries have repeatedly become sites of protest and reinterpretation.
Why it matters for the project
Delivered at the nation's 100th birthday — proof that anniversaries become moments of reckoning over the Declaration.