Posted: 1/18/2014
Trigger
The Mann Center in Philadelphia is having a special event on Octavius Catto titled “Octavius Catto Story: A Philadelphia Freedom Fighter” in February - April, 2014.
Some Remarks
Sources:
http://ojs.libraries.psu.edu/index.php/phj/article/view/23956/23725 (“Nineteenth Century Philadelphia Black Militant: Octavius V. Catto (1839-1871)” by Harry C. Silcox published by Pennsylvania History vol. 44, no. 1, January 1977)
I do not intend to discuss here Catto’s involvement with equal rights or why he is celebrated today as a “civil rights pioneer”.
Octavius is quite a classical Roman name. Wonder how he got it and what it meant?
His father was a slave, but was freed.
His mother is said to be a “a member of Charleston's prominent free mixed-race DeReef family” (1). Here it becomes interesting. If you search for her family will come across a letter to the editor of the New York Times dating from 1907 discussing people of color owning slaves like the DeReef. Or read more about this on this blog post.
He was a student at the Institute for Colored Youth, which was founded by a Quaker philanthropist (most likely a white man, although there appears to be no picture of this man or any hint as to his skin color), who was born on a plantation in the West Indies. Quakers (a predominantly white society) ran the institute.
“In 1853 his family moved to Allentown, New Jersey where, by the influence of
ex-Governor William A. Newell, Octavius gained admission to that
city's white academy.” (2).
“Following the 1867 season, Catto, with support by players from the white Athletic Base Ball Club, applied for the Pythians' [Pythian Base Ball Club] admission into the newly formed Pennsylvania Base Ball Association.” (2). Is it not surprising to learn that as early as 1867, white athletes tried to promote black athletes.
About his murder in 1871 on election day we learn in (1) that he was owning or even carrying a gun. “On Chestnut Street [Philadelphia, PA] he was again accosted by some white ruffians, who pointed a pistol at him, threatening his life if he went to vote. Catto went to a near-by store and purchased a pistol. When a friend reminded him that he had no cartridges, he replied that he had some at home.” (2) Thanks to the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This is another example that black Americans used guns to defend themselves.
We also learn in (1) that in those days, black Americans voted for Republicans. “Catto's military experience made him an ardent and confirmed Republican.” (2).
“Possessor of a combative and aggressive nature, Catto was linked with every important black movement of the day.” (2) How combative and aggressive was this guy? He did not fight in the Civil War, but he recruited other black man for the Union army.
Was Catto possibly a racist himself? “Catto "did not wish to turn his back on the fact that the colored man was the best teacher for colored children [since] he had long been of the belief that no white man could so well instruct colored children as could a colored teacher." He credited the latter's success to a clear recognition by
all blacks that black teachers "had the welfare of the race more at heart, knowing that they rose or fell together... ."" … ether... ."" Catto's amendment
read: "In the appointment of teachers for these schools, colored persons, their literary qualifications being sufficient, should receive the preference, not by reason of their complection, but because they are better qualified by conventional circumstances outside of the school-house."' … Complaints in the black newspaper The Christian Recorder also advanced Catto's position and illustrated his ability to speak for his people in racial matters. It constrains us more than ever to adhere to our motto of "Colored teachers for colored schools," and further that those white teachers take no real interest in their work nor of the scholars but teach and tolerate them only in order to enable them to draw the money they receive at the end of each month.35” (2)
Source (2) concludes: “Could the mentality of submission, as symbolized by Booker T. Washington, have had its beginnings in the violence and suppression of the urban North and not in the rural South? Catto's life and death give credence to just
such a hypothesis.” Wow! Was Booker T. Washington indeed submissive or is this not a very condescending remark? The author of source (2) seems to be a fan of W. E. B. DuBois about whom could be said a lot too.
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