Trump pardons 19th-century women’s suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony but voting inequities remain

Marking the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. President Trump will pardon Susan B. Anthony -- but Crystal Mason remains behind bars.

President Trump said Tuesday he has issued a pardon for Anthony, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement who was arrested for voting in 1872 in violation of laws permitting only men to vote.

“(Anthony) was never pardoned. Did you know that? She was never pardoned,” Trump said. “What took so long?” the Republican president said on Tuesday.

Anthony was arrested for voting in her hometown of Rochester, New York, and convicted by an all-male jury in a widely publicized trial. Even though she refused to pay the fine, authorities declined to take further action.

President Donald Trump signs a proclamation recognizing the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Tuesday, Aug. 18, in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington. (Patrick Semansky/)

In recent weeks, Trump has been trying to build support within the pivotal female voter constituency and has stepped up his events aimed at women. His campaign has launched a “women for Trump” bus tour and the president has embraced a “law and order” message with renewed vigor.

But he made no mention of a reprieve for Mason, 45, a former tax preparer from Texas who was convicted in 2012 on charges related to inflating refunds for clients. Upon her release from federal prison, she was not made aware that she could not cast a ballot until completion of her sentence and voted in the 2016 presidential election while on supervised leave for a federal conviction.

In this April 17, 2018, photo, Crystal Mason wipes away a tear after mentioning her children while speaking to the media as she sits with Dominique Alexander, of the Next Generation Action Network, and civil rights attorney Kim Cole in downtown Dallas. Mason, a black woman from Texas who was sentenced in 2018 to five years in prison for voting illegally in 2016, while she was on supervised release from a federal conviction, said she didn’t know she wasn’t allowed to vote. (Andy Jacobsohn/)

As a result, Mason was sentenced five years in prison on felony charges of illegal voting.

According to The Texas Tribune, her legal team, including the ACLU, appealed the punishment but a three-judge panel of the Fort Worth appeals court on affirmed a trial court’s judgment of illegal voting, a second-degree state felony. Her lawyers indicated they will seek a review of the case by the full state 2nd District Court of Appeals.