When Susan B. Anthony Spoke at City Hall

Milwaukee hosted many role models for women before and after women gained the right to vote.

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The men don’t respect me. They respect the money I make for them.

        —Joan Crawford, President of PepsiCo, 1955.

The long, uphill battle for women’s rights began 150 years ago in the aftermath of the Civil War. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton hosted Wisconsin’s first suffrage convention in 1869. Stanton was one of the pioneer crusaders for women’s rights and guided the struggle into the 20th century. She delivered a fiery, articulate speech at City Hall for politicians and city leaders who had no intention of taking part in the evening’s agenda. Anthony was a prominent social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the movement. As a teen, she helped collect 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery.

As Cady and Anthony put their considerable energy writing letters, composing speeches, and recruiting new members to their team, women in America were forbidden to vote, own property or open a bank account. As a result, women who began migrating west of the Mississippi river were forced to marry or become prostitutes to support themselves.

When Jane Addams, founder of Chicago’s Hull House, spoke at Downer College in 1897, a newspaperman wrote that “Miss Addams is not a handsome woman in the popular acceptance of the term, but she has a face beautiful in its refinement and intelligence, and in the sanctified purpose which is mirrored in her eyes.”

Discriminatory Practices

When the 19th Amendment was enacted after decades of campaigning, only white women we’re allowed to vote. Millions of women of color across a significant portion of the country were prevented from voting for several more decades. States in the deep South imposed poll taxes, literacy tests, and outdated laws to restrict blacks and other voters of color out of the democratic process. By the mid-20th century, protest and other civil demonstrations called national attention to the discriminatory practices.

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For years, men in power expressed anger, scorn and ridicule all to no avail. In the 19th century stage and music hall performers were quiet for fear of endangering their careers. Once they retired from performing, speaking publicly or joining a relevant organization was not uncommon.

Milwaukee hosted many role models for women before and after 1919. The indomitable Helen Keller, pilot Amelia Earhart, and actress/singer Ethel Waters proved that female independence was unstoppable. Controversial figures such as eugenicist Margaret Sanger, sex symbol Mae West, and saloon-wrecker Carrie Nation expressed themselves in other ways.

Actress Bette Davis, who could make a man’s knee buckle, performed at the Oriental theater in 1960. The equally intimidating Joan Crawford pushed Pepsi-Cola into a rivalry with Coke. She sold a thousand gallons of Pepsi syrup when she visited Milwaukee. Poet Laureate Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King’s widow Coretta Scott King, and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher are just a few of the larger-than-life personalities who stood tall in front of Milwaukee audiences.