Rochester connection in Final Jeopardy

If you are a Rochester resident and watched Jeopardy on Thursday night, chances are you answered the Final Jeopardy question correctly. “Famous Names” was the Final Jeopardy category, and the clue was: “A new Election Day ritual is leaving ‘I Voted’ stickers on the headstone of this historic woman at a Rochester, New York cemetery.”

Rochester residents and history buffs took to Twitter and shared the answer- “Who is Susan B. Anthony?” and bragged about the Rochester connection.

Anthony, who was a women’s suffrage activist, was arrested in 1872 because she voted illegally. She and other women pushed and fought for years for women to be granted the right to vote. While she was not able to see the results of her activism while she was alive, the 19th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified in August of 1920. This amendment allowed women to vote. Anthony passed away in 1906.

It is uncertain when people first started leaving “I Voted” stickers on Anthony’s headstone. However, this tradition has garnered more attention and become even more popular since the election of 2016, in which a female candidate ran for president.

Susan B. Anthony would certainly be impressed at how far some things have come.