Philadelphia honored a leader of the Pennsylvania United States Colored Troops who was assassinated in 1871 for his voting rights activism. A new street sign was installed marking “Octavius V. Catto Way” on the 800 block of South Street where he was killed.
Octavius V. Catto was a free-born Black man from Charleston, South Carolina in 1839. His father was enslaved but he bought his freedom and his mother was born free. When Catto was still a child, his father was ordained a minister and moved to Philadelphia. As an adult Catto was hired a teacher at a school for the education of Black students. In 1864 he delivered the commencement address at the school in which he focused on the Civil War as a time of change for Black people in the United States. Catto said “…. It is for the purpose of promoting, as far as possible, the preparation of the colored man for the assumption of these new relations with intelligence and with the knowledge which promises success, that the Institute feels called upon at this time to act with more energy and on a broader scale than has heretofore been required.”
From the start of the Civil War, Catto was an advocate for opening up the United States Army to Black recruitment. He helped form the Recruitment Committee to ask for inclusion of African Americans and when the Confederates invaded Pennsylvania before the Battle of Gettysburg he helped form a company of African Americans to defend the state. However, even though this took place a half-a-year after the Emancipation Proclamation, the company was refused by the State of Pennsylvania.
Catto continued to advocate for the recruitment of Black troops and over the next two years he helped recruit men for eleven United States Colored Infantry regiments and he was commissioned a captain. In 1865 when he presented the flag to the 24th United States Colored Troops the Christian Recorder (April 22, 1865) reported:
“The speaker [Catto] then paid a tribute to the two hundred thousand blacks, who, in spite of obloquy and the old bane of prejudice, have been nobly fighting our battles, trusting to a redeemed country for the full recognition of their manhood in the future. He thought that in the plan of reconstruction, the votes of the blacks could not be lightly dispensed with. They were the only unqualified friends of the Union in the South. In the impressive language written on this flag, “Let Soldiers in War be Citizens in Peace,” the Banks policy may plant the seed of another revolution. Our statesmen will have to take care lest they prove neither so good nor wise under the seductions of mild-eyed peace, as heretofore, amidst the tumults of grim-visaged war. Merit should also be recognised [sic] in the black soldier, and the way opened to his promotion. De Tocqueville prophesied that if ever America underwent Revolution, it would be brought about by the presence of the black race, and that it would result from the inequality of their condition. This has been verified. But there is another side to the picture; and while he thought it his duty to keep these things before the public, there are motives of interest founded on our faith in the nation’s honor, to act in this strife. Freedom has rapidly advanced since the firing on Sumter; and since the Genius of Liberty has directed the war, we have gone from victory to victory. Soldiers! Accept this flag on behalf of the citizens of Philadelphia. I know too well the mettle of your pasture, that you will not dishonor it. Keep before your eyes the noble deeds of your fellows at Port Hudson, Fort Wagner, and on other historic fields. Desert them not. Accept, Colonel, this flag on behalf of the regiment, and may God bless you and them.” (Christian Recorder, April 22, 1865)
Jonathan Wilson
Even during the war, Catto was trying to end segregation in Pennsylvania. The New York Times reported:
Philadelphia, Wednesday, May 17—2 P. M. [1865]
Last evening a colored man [Catto] got into a Pine-street passenger car, and refused all entreaties to leave the car, where his presence appeared to be not desired.
The conductor of the car, fearful of being fined for ejecting him, as was done by the Judges of one of our courts in a similar case, ran the car off the track, detached the horses, and left the colored man to occupy the car all by himself.
The colored man still firmly maintains his position in the car, having spent the whole of the night there.
The conductor looks upon the part he enacted in the affair as a splendid piece of strategy.
The matter creates quite a sensation in the neighborhood where the car is standing, and crowds of sympathizers flock around the colored man.
— New York Times, May 18, 1865, p. 5
After the war, Catto advocated the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution. As Black men were given the right to vote, Catto helped create an effective organization for mobilizing his community to turn out at the polls on election day. In 1871 the Black vote was seen as a threat to the Democrat controlled city government. With the election day being October 10, 1871, the Fourth Ward boss, Alderman William “Bull” McMullen, directed his followers to use physical violence to stop Blacks from voting. Frank Kelly who was a Democratic activist in the Fourth Ward Irish community shot Catto killing him immediately. More than 5,000 mourners turned out for his funeral.
Catto is also honored with a scholarship in his name and a statue outside of city hall.
Thanks to Jonathan Wilson for taking the photographs for this article.
Sources:
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia
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