Photo credits: YouTube screenshot
On February 22, 1839, in Charleston, South Carolina, Octavius Valentine Catto (pictured) was born to a free mother.
Catto was a civil rights activist, educator, and intellectual in Philadelphia. He rose to the position of principal of all-male students at the Institute for Colored Youth, where he had previously received his education.
He was born into a well-to-do mixed-race family. Catto and the rest of his household migrated north when he was still very young. He completed his education and worked as a teacher before becoming involved in civil rights.
Catto was also a well-known cricket and baseball player in nineteenth-century Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On October 10, 1871, he was shot and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Catto was tragically killed during election-day violence.
Ethnic Irish members of the Democratic Party were a cross-section of individuals who were anti-Reconstruction and opposed black voting rights.
They assaulted and killed black males on election day to prevent them from voting for Republican candidates.
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