So, voting is important, right? It’s been super inspiring to go back in the annals and find just a LONG list of Black folk who fought hard for the right to vote, and I mean literally fight! Today I’m talking about Octavius Catto, who championed voting rights, and would ultimately lose his life for it.
Octavius was born on February 22nd, 1839 in Charleston, South Carolina. His family was Black and bougie! His mother, Sarah, was a member of the DeReef family, a wealthy and influential family in Charleston. Sarah and her family had been free for decades. His father, William T Catto, was a former slave who became a minister after he was freed. Shortly after Octavius’ birth the Cattos moved to Philadelphia, which had abolished slavery. Pretty solid move if you ask me!
In 1853, Octavius began studying at the all white Allentown Academy in New Jersey for a year before moving back to Philly and transferring to the Institute for Colored Youths (ICY), where he developed an interest in Greek and Latin. After he graduated from the Institute, he continued to formally study both languages, even traveling to Washington D.C. for further his post-grad education. In 1859, he again returned to Pennsylvania, and was hired by the ICY as an English and math teacher. But he didn’t just take the job and chill out, Octavius regularly spoke out about the radical disparity in the attitudes of white teachers toward their Black students. In his 1864 ICY commencement address he was quoted as saying, “It is at least unjust to allow a blind and ignorant prejudice to so far disregard the choice of parents and the will of the colored tax-payers, as to appoint over colored children white teachers, whose intelligence and success, measured by the fruits of their labors, could neither obtain nor secure for them positions which we know would be more congenial to their tastes.”
Octavius was also a staunch abolitionist. Once the Civil War popped off in 1861, he immediately threw himself into activism and joined with Frederick Douglass, among others, to form a committee that was tasked with getting Black men to enlist in the Union Army and fight for their independence. The Confederates rolled up to Pennsylvania in 1863 and Octavius tried to rally some folk to aid in the State’s defense. Stunningly, the Union Army was like, “No thanks, we’re good!” Undeterred, Catto raised eleven different regiments to fight, and was eventually commissioned into the Union Army at the rank of Major. After the war, Octavius became involved with the Pennsylvania Equal Rights League. He also served as Vice President of the State Convention of Colored People, held in Harrisburg, PA.
Now if there was one thing Octavius hated, it was inequality and segregation. One night he hired a horse driven passenger car. Everything was fine until the driver realized he was Black and asked him to exit the car…Octavius did not. The driver even fully detached the horses and left the scene, but Octavius DIDN’T! He just slept there! There’s an 1865 New York Times article written about the incident where the author is basically like, “So yeah…he’s just still in that car, like as we speak!”
At another protest, against a company that had been forcibly ejecting Black women from streetcars, he gave a speech that pretty much broke down to: 1. Ya’ll are embarrassing for keeping Black folk out of streetcars. 2. Ya’ll are embarrassing for being late to the party because D.C., New York and St. Louis are already integrating public transport. 3. Not none of y’all should call yourselves Christians while this buffoonery is continuing. Shortly after, in what I like to imagine was just Philly getting shamed by Octavius, they passed a resolution formally banning the practice of segregation in any public transport.
In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment gets ratified, and now Black men have the right to vote. Octavius worked tirelessly to get Black men registered and to the polls. However, on Election Day of 1871, a huge riot broke out with Black dudes trying to vote and white dudes being super bummed about it. On his way to vote Octavius was accosted by one of these bummed out white dudes and was shot three times. Octavius did not survive, and was buried at Lebanon Cemetery with full military honors.
Here’s something kinda fun though: in 2016, then Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kennedy commissioned a sculpture dedicated to Octavius. This statue was erected the next year and now stands in front of Philadelphia’s City Hall. The statue is named, “A Quest for Parity”. It depicts Octavius walking forward, arms outstretched, looking up toward the heavens, and I like to imagine, looking toward a better future.
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