As Americans prepare to vote on Tuesday, they continue a tradition once pioneered by Susan B. Anthony, who on November 5, 1872, cast an illegal vote to assert her status as a full citizen of the United States. Born in 1820 into a Quaker family in Adams, Massachusetts, Anthony began advocating for social justice at a young age. As a teenager, she campaigned against slavery and later partnered with Elizabeth Cady Stanton to advance women’s rights.
For 45 years, Anthony traveled extensively across the country, delivering numerous speeches to promote women’s suffrage, often facing significant opposition and harsh criticism. Following the passage of the 15th Amendment, which prohibited voting discrimination based on race but not gender, Anthony opposed the idea that Black men would gain the right to vote before white women. She famously expressed her resolve, declaring she would cut off her right arm before supporting the enfranchisement of Black men without securing the vote for women.
Despite continuous advocacy, Congress initially remained unresponsive to demands for women’s voting rights. Consequently, during the 1872 electoral contest between Ulysses S. Grant and Horace Greeley, Anthony and 14 other women, asserting their status as taxpaying citizens, sought to vote at a polling station in Rochester, New York. An election official later recounted Anthony questioning her citizenship and right to vote under the 14th Amendment, leading a Supervisor of Elections to advise, seemingly at a loss, that their names should be registered.
Anthony was arrested two weeks later at her home, reportedly instructing the arresting marshal to handcuff her just as a man would be. Although Anthony passed away in 1906 before women gained full suffrage, her legacy as a trailblazer for women’s rights endures. In 2016, following Hillary Clinton’s nomination as the first female Democratic presidential candidate, numerous women visited Anthony’s gravesite in Rochester, adorning her headstone with “I Voted” stickers. Currently, as Vice President Kamala Harris aims to make history as the first female head of state, women are once again commemorating Anthony’s contributions by placing voting stickers on her grave.
