Who Is Susan B. Anthony? As Voters Go To 2016 Polls, 10 Facts You Didn't Know About The Famous Women's Suffragist
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton made history this summer when she became the first woman to be nominated by a major party. The former secretary of state has a strong chance to be elected the first woman president on Tuesday night, and many voters have not lost sight of the election's historical significance.
Hundreds of voters in Rochester, New York, converged on the gravestone of Susan B. Anthony, the famed women's suffrage moment leader, to place an "I Voted Today" sticker on her headstone.
The cemetery will be kept open past its normal 5:30 p.m. closing time until 9 p.m. for the election allowing voters to honor the activist who was famously arrested after convincing poll workers to let her cast a ballot for Ulysses S. Grant in the 1872 Election
After that arrest, Anthony, who also fought for educational reforms, abolition, labor rights and temperance in her life, went around the counties in Upstate New York delivering speeches in favor of expanding women's right to vote. She died in 1906, 14 years before the 19th Amendment was ratified.
This isn’t the first year that people have lined up to honor Anthony at her grave site, however. As early as 2014, voters were seen placing the stickers on the gravestone. Around 30 voters put their sticker on the gravestone after the April Democratic primary as well.
Some interesting facts about Susan Brownell Anthony present a unique picture of the social reformer.
- Anthony was raised in a large Quaker family that fought in the anti-slavery movement.
- In public school, her teacher refused to teach her long division so her father started a community education program for her, her siblings and other children.
- She fought for equal pay for women and men in schools when she learned that men were paid $10 a month compared to the $2.50 women were paid back then.
- She went to Congress each year from 1869 until 1906 (the year of her death) seeking passage of the 19th amendment.
- Anthony gave a lot of speeches (75-100 a year by some counts).
- Her final public words? "Failure is impossible."
- She wasn't present for the Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention in 1848.
- Anthony was the first woman to make it onto U.S. currency, first appearing on the dollar coin in 1979.
- She was good friends with Frederick Douglass, as they were both abolitionists.
- She celebrated her 80th birthday at the White House.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.