Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America

Daniel R. Biddle; Murray Dubin

ISBN 10: 1592134653 / ISBN 13: 9781592134656

Published by Temple University Press, 2010

Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G1592134653I4N10

Synopsis:

Octavius Valentine Catto was an orator who shared stages with Frederick Douglass, a second baseman on Philadelphia's best black baseball team, a teacher at the city's finest black school and an activist who fought in the state capital and on the streets for equal rights. With his racially-charged murder, the nation lost a civil rights pioneer―one who risked his life a century before Selma and Birmingham. In Tasting Freedom Murray Dubin and Pulitzer Prize winner Dan Biddle painstakingly chronicle the life of this charismatic black leader―a "free" black whose freedom was in name only. Born in the American south, where slavery permeated everyday life, he moved north where he joined the fight to be truly free―free to vote, go to school, ride on streetcars, play baseball and even participate in July 4th celebrations. Catto electrified a biracial audience in 1864 when he proclaimed, "There must come a change," calling on free men and women to act and educate the newly freed slaves. With a group of other African Americans who called themselves a "band of brothers," they challenged one injustice after another. Tasting Freedom presents the little-known stories of Catto and the men and women who struggled to change America.

About the Author:

Daniel R. Biddle, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Pennsylvania editor, has worked in nearly every phase of newspaper reporting and editing. His investigative stories on the courts won a Pulitzer Prize and other national awards. He has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and has taught at the University of Pennsylvania. Murray Dubin, author of South Philadelphia: Mummers, Memories and the Melrose Diner, was a reporter and editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer for 34 years before leaving the newspaper in 2005.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the ...
Publisher: Temple University Press
Publication Date: 2010
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket