WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Lucy Stone & Perseverance for Civil Rights
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By Ellen Moyer
uffragist Lucy Stone knew from an early age that she did not want to get married. After seeing her mother relinquish her hard earned money selling eggs and vegetables from their family farm to her husband, as was the custom of the day, she resolved to “call no man my master.” The law of the land provided that women’s assets including property become the asset of the man after marriage. For Lucy, this custom had to change. She dedicated her life to correcting wrongs to women.
Among the wrongs was the issue of equal pay. As the eighth of nine children, Stone followed her brothers at age 16 as a teacher and soon discovered that she was paid half what they were paid for doing the same work. Determined to be self-supporting, she pursued education becoming the first woman from Massachusetts to graduate from college. Oberlin, her alma mater, was the first college to admit women. While there, she worked to pay her expenses and asked to be paid the same rate as the males. The college refused and so she resigned from her work. Supported by her peers in her quest for equal pay, the college finally relented to meet equal pay for students. A similar request years earlier, in 1830s, had been denied by a school board in Iowa on the rationale that “to make education universal, it must be a moderate expense and women can afford to teach for half, or less, the salary of men.” While at Oberlin, she organized a women’s debating society. The custom of the day forbid women from speaking in public. Chosen by the college faculty to write an essay for graduation, Stone refused when denied the right to read her commencement address, which would have been given to a man. She graduated from Oberlin on August 25, 1847 at age 29. A gifted orator, she spoke extensively on issues against slavery. Honing her skills through debates, she resolved to again challenge custom and became an independent lecturer on women’s rights. After initiating the first National Women’s Rights Convention in October 1850, she launched her speaking career on October 1, 1851. In her lectures, she pushed “for the right of women to control of her own person as a moral, intelligent, and accountable being…Other rights were certain to fall into place after women were given control of their own bodies.”
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Stone was described as having a voice like a silver bell with persuasive power that could move audiences to tears and laughter. In 1853, businessman Henry Blackwell offered to arrange a lecture tour for her in Western states. In 13 weeks, she gave 40 lectures in 13 cities to capacity audiences of thousands that inspired discussions in homes and at clubs, setting “women in the town crazy after women’s rights.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton said of her, “Lucy Stone was the first speaker who really stirred the nation’s heart on the subject of woman’s wrongs.” In 1854, Stone finally agreed to marry Henry Blackwell, but only if they agreed to a contract that preserved personal liberty and financial independence. Stone also viewed abandoning a surname to their husband’s as a manifestation of the legal annihilation of a married woman’s identity. On May 7, 1856 she announced at the American Anti Slavery Society in Boston that her name remained Lucy Stone. Throughout her lifetime, as when she was required to use her husband’s name to register in a local school board election, she simply refused to vote. A century later women who chose to retain their surname after marriage were referred to as Lucy Stoners. After the birth of her daughter in 1857, the miscarriage of her son in 1859, and having never fully-recovered from typhoid in 1850, Stone cut back on lecture activities. With Susan B. Anthony in 1863, she helped form the Woman’s
Loyal National League, the first National Women’s political organization. Lucy Stone died in 1893 after a lifetime of pushing for values that supported “rights and duties common to all moral beings.” She never faltered in her persistence and adherence to principles of fairness that challenged demeaning customs “that must change” in our culture if fairness and equal civil rights were to prevail. Laws did change regarding women’s property rights, divorce, child support, and education. However, 150 years after Stone fought the battle at Oberlin for equal pay, there is no guarantee; we are still fighting for national equal pay legislation. On the issue of control over our body, as met by Roe v. Wade, there is no guarantee either. State laws pull back women’s rights and Roe v. Wade is under Supreme Court attack. Perhaps in 2020, now more than ever, the perseverance exhibited by Lucy Stone to change customs and to make a difference in our culture for fairness in the lives of women needs a “come-back kid” inspirational orator. Or is perseverance for personal liberty, financial independence, and cultural fairness a demand of each of us as we celebrate the Year of the Woman?
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