Susan B. Anthony was an activist seemingly from birth.

Born into a Quaker family, her father’s mill failed when he refused to use slave-grown cotton. Inspired by his steadfast commitment to justice, she was collecting anti-slavery petitions as early as 17. During the Civil War, she helped found the Women’s Loyal National League, which conducted the largest petition drive in United States history up to that time, collecting nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

But Anthony’s quest for equal rights didn’t stop with the color of people’s skin, and she later credited her work as a teacher as the catalyst for the shift. “I think the first seed for thought was planted during my early days as a teacher,” she later told reporter Nelly Bly. “I saw the injustice of paying stupid men double and treble women’s wages for teaching merely because they were men.” In 1851, she met a woman by the name of Elizabeth Cody Stanton and, together, the two of them would make history as they sought fairness for another marginalized group of people: women.

Together, they founded the New York Women’s State Temperance Society after Anthony was prevented from speaking at a temperance conference because she was female. After the Civil War, they initiated the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned for equal rights for both women and African Americans. She and Stanton gathered signatures to pass the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution formally abolishing slavery.

In 1870, the passage of the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution caused additional rifts because it eliminated voting restrictions due to race or color…but not gender.

But they would not let this stop them. In 1869, they founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, which eventually merged with the rival American Woman Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

The movement began to grow.

Buoyed by momentum, in November 1872, Anthony voted in the presidential election in her home of Rochester, New York. Two weeks later, she was arrested. During her trial, Anthony was unable to testify on her behalf, since women’s testimony was not considered to be competent. However, this did not stop her from speaking her mind after her indictment. In the so-called “On Women’s Right to Vote” speech, she invoked the preamble of the Constitution and added:

“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people – women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government – the ballot.”

She went on to say:

“The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.”

Although Anthony was eventually found guilty and fined $100 (which she refused to pay, allegedly telling the judge “May it please your honor, I will never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God,”), the incident and its publicity did allow her to bring her message of suffrage to a larger audience.

By 1868, it seemed Anthony was on her way to victory. Legislators in Congress introduced federal woman’s suffrage amendment. It would only be a matter of time.

And more time.

And more time.

Sixteen years passed with no advancement within Congress of the amendment.

On March 8th, 1884 Susan B. Anthony appeared before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. Anthony began her statement thus:

“We appear before you this morning…to ask that you will, at your earliest convenience, report to the House in favor of the submission of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Legislatures of the several States, that shall prohibit the disfranchisement of citizens of the United States on account of sex.”

She continued:

““This is the sixteenth year that we have come before Congress in person, and the nineteenth by petitions. Ever since the war, from the winter of 1865-’66, we have regularly sent up petitions asking for the national protection of the citizen’s right to vote when the citizen happens to be a woman. We are here again for the same purpose.”

Unfortunately, it took many more years to win approval for the suffrage amendment. Not until June 4, 1919, did Congress pass the “Anthony Amendment,” in honor of its champion. On Aug. 26, 1920, enough states ratified the change, which is now enshrined as the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Women finally had the right to vote.

Anthony, regrettably, did not live to see her quest come to fruition; she died in 1906. There is no doubt, however, that it was her persistence and tireless efforts that led to its eventual acceptance. And, although there are many reasons behind March 8 being designated “International Women’s Day,” I can’t help but think that remembering Anthony’s speech before Congress on this day in 1884–ever tirelessly petitioning for women’s right to vote–is an appropriate way to honor both it and her.