ROCHESTER, N.Y. (MEDIA GENERAL) – As hours tick down to a potentially historic Election Day, some New Yorkers are expressing their gratitude to a pivotal player in the woman’s suffrage movement, Susan B. Anthony.
According to the Democrat & Chronicle, one unidentified person left a short note along with a Hillary Clinton campaign button last week at Anthony’s gravesite in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York – Anthony’s hometown. The note read, “Thank you, Susan B. Anthony, for devoting your life to women’s voting rights. Because of your work, on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, I will cast my ballot for the first woman president of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton!”
Other supporters have followed up the gesture by placing their “I voted” stickers, received after casting ballots in the early voting process, on Anthony’s headstone.
Lovely Warren, the sitting mayor of Rochester, New York, is the first woman to hold the position, and Anthony’s local ties are not lost on her.
“I actually became the first female mayor of the city of Rochester. I would not have been able to do that without the sacrifices of women like Susan B. Anthony,” Warren told CNN.
Anthony, alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton, fought for women’s rights for decades. In 1872, she was arrested for voting in Rochester and convicted in a trial that gained national attention. Widely criticized for her beliefs in the late 19th century, Anthony was hailed as a hero, even before her death in 1906 as popular opinion slowly changed to favor women’s voting rights.
Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, which gave women the right to vote.
