November 18, 1872: Susan B. Anthony is arrested for voting in the presidential election. She was arrested at her home in Rochester.
Anthony was among the dozens of women who attempted to cast ballots on November 5 presidential election.
Anthony, who at that time had already become a prominent figure in the women’s suffrage movement, had written to fellow suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she voted “Republican ticket –straight.” That included Ulysses S. Grant and other candidates who promised to listen to women’s demands.
Anthony and her sisters were among 15 women who voted at her polling site, which today houses the 1872 Café, a tribute of sorts to Anthony’s commitment to civil rights for all people.
About 50 other women attempted to vote in the Rochester area, but were turned away.
“We are in for a fine agitation in Rochester,” Anthony wrote to Stanton.
Following her arrest, Anthony went on a speaking tour of all of the 29 towns and villages in Monroe County, raising the question of whether it should be a crime for a citizen of the United States to vote.
She was tried and convicted seven months later in the Ontario County courthouse in Canandaigua.