Suffrage icon Susan B. Anthony’s grave is drawing huge crowds on Election Day as people consider selecting Hillary Clinton as their first female president.
Local news reports indicate at least 1,000 people made the journey to the Rochester, N.Y., grave site to pay tribute to Anthony’s contributions to women’s rights, and hundreds more waited in line for their turn. A live feed shows her headstone covered with “I Voted Today.” Others placed yellow flowers, a symbol of the suffragette movement and American flags in her honor around the gravestone.
Though similar tributes have been made before and a number came after Clinton won the Democratic primary, Mt. Hope Cemetery extended visiting hours from 5 p.m.-9 p.m. on Tuesday to accommodate the crowds that are expected to continue to flow through throughout the day.
Though placing stickers on gravestones is apparently against cemetery rules, the city is allowing the tradition to continue and officials have put large poster boards up for people to write their tributes. Workers are expected to remove stickers from the stone to a board so the site isn’t completely overwhelmed with tributes.
Susan B. Anthony co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, working with colleague Elizabeth Cady Stanton to ensure Congress was presented with what became popularly known as the Anthony Amendment, before finally becoming the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that gave women the right to vote.
She died 14 years before its passage and was later honored for her work by becoming the first historic female figure featured on a coin produced by the U.S. Treasury.
Clinton has embraced the historic nature of her candidacy and her frequent appearances dressed entirely in white are widely thought to be in homage of the suffragettes, who adopted it as their official color.
