The Friends of Susan B. Anthony began in 1968 as an informal February 15 birthday party luncheon organized by Beth Daane (pronounced DAY-nee), Director of the Gainesville Public Library, and held in the dining room of what at that time was the Thomas Hotel. In attendance besides Ms. Daane were Katie Dunn, Thelma Ford, Charlotte Yates, Paola Langford, Lily Carter, Florence Dunlap and possibly Annette Yoho, all librarians at the public library. After Ms. Daane’s death, Charlotte Yates, her friend and the public relations officer at the public library, continued the custom. It became an annual informal event that was held variously at restaurants or private homes. As the years went by other interested friends wanted to attend, too. It was not until 1989 that recognition was given to a local woman who exemplified some of the qualities of Susan B. Anthony, that is, concern for full enfranchisement of women and minorities and equal rights for all citizens. It was the brainchild of Sheila Buros and Doris Bardon to surprise Charlotte with the honor. There are no membership cards or dues to be a Friend - just RSVP to the lunch invitation and you can consider yourself a Friend. We operate only on donations, in-kind or cash.

The group of Friends has no elected officers; it has never “formally” organized. However, the die-hard friends of Susan B. want to continue to acknowledge and remember this remarkable woman, her colleagues and the spirit of their time. We have chosen what has come to be known as Women’s Equality Day, the anniversary of the 19th Amendment (woman suffrage), August 26, to do that. May we never forget their sacrifices, hard work and persistence. “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”

The recipients of the Friends of Susan B. Anthony Award, featured speakers (which began in 1991) and venues are:

Sponsor organizations and representatives on FoSBA steering committee (January 2007):

Update:

In 2006 FoSBA began sponsorship of a local girl to attend the American Legion Auxiliary's Girls State in Tallahassee. This program takes girls going into their senior year of high school who have shown promise of leadership and interest in citizenship and gives them a week's experience in how government works by creating their own state - legislative, executive and judicial functions - and have an opportunity to learn more about the Florida state legislature. In 2006 FoSBA funded the attendance of Bianca Gras, entering her senior year of high school at P.K. Yonge Laboratory School, to attend Girls State in Tallahassee. Juliana Hughes, also of P.K. Yonge was the recipient of FoSBA support to Girls State for 2007.

Six FoSBA members have been identified so far as also having been Girls State attendees in their high school years:

Gert Desjardin, MN, 1948;

June Littler, NV, 1948

Dot Whittle, FL, 1948

Barbara Scott, FL, 1950;

Margaret Boonstra, IN, 1951

Margaret Zircher, TN, 1954

We plan to have a Girls State display next year to highlight its activities.

The Friends of Susan B. Anthony meet once a year, generally the Saturday nearest August 26. The next meeting is 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, August 23, 2008, place: TBA. The formal invitation with all particulars for the event will be mailed (and emailed to those whose addresses we have) in mid-July 2008 and reservations will be accepted after that.

"Susan B. Anthony was born in South Adams, Massachusetts, February 15, 1820. Her father, Daniel Anthony, a cotton manufacturer, was a liberal Quaker who educated his daughter by private teachers to be self-supporting. Her education was completed at a Friends' boarding school in Philadelphia. Miss Anthony taught school in this State from 1835 to 1840. In 1845 her father settled in this city [Rochester, NY] and two years later she made her first public speech, the subject being temperance. From that time until the present she had been working in the cause of temperance and other public reforms. In 1851 she called a temperance convention in Albany, having been refused admission to a previous convention because of her sex. In 1852, assisted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she organized the Woman's New York State Temperance society. In 1857 she became prominent among the agitators for the abolition of slavery, but the chief work of her life has been in connection with the movement to obtain for women equal political rights to those enjoyed by men. In 1868, associated with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Parker Pillsbury and George Francis Train, she began the publication in New York City of a weekly paper called The Revolution, and voted to the enfranchisment of women. In 1872 Miss Anthony cast a ballot at the congressional election in Rochester, her purpose being to test the application of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the constitution. She was indicted for illegal voting, denied the right of trial by jury, and sentenced by Associate Justice Hunt of the United States Court to pay a fine of one hundred dollars. But she never paid the fine. In 1881 with the assistance of her co-editors, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage, she published The History of Woman Suffrage, in three volumes. In 1888 Miss Anthony was the prime mover and manager of the Woman's International Council, which met at Washington, D. C., in March, to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the first Woman's Rights convention. When, in 1891, Mrs. Stanton retired from the presidency of the National American Woman Suffrage association, Miss Anthony was chosen as her successor. She started and led the movement to induce the New York constitutional convention to submit an amendment the people granting woman suffrage."

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