Freedom Calendar 03/19/05 - 03/26/05

March 19, 2003, Republican U.S. Representatives of Hispanic and Portuguese descent form Congressional Hispanic Conference.

March 20, 1854, Opponents of Democrats’ pro-slavery policies meet in Ripon, Wisconsin to establish the Republican Party.

March 21, 1965, Republican federal judge Frank Johnson authorizes Martin Luther King’s protest march from Selma to Montgomery, overruling Democrat Governor George Wallace

March 22, 1871, Spartansburg Republican newspaper denounces Ku Klux Klan campaign to eradicate the Republican Party in South Carolina.

March 23, 1823, Birth of Schuyler Colfax (R-IN), who as Speaker of the House broke precedent to vote for Republicans’ constitutional amendment banning slavery; later served as Vice President.

March 24, 1902, Birth of Thomas Dewey (R-NY), who as Governor introduced nation’s first statewide civil rights law; Republican presidential candidate in 1944 and 1948.

March 25, 1864, Death of U.S. Rep. Owen Lovejoy (R-IL), abolitionist and co-founder of Republican Party in Illinois.

March 26, 1910, President Taft appoints Republican William Lewis as first African-American U.S. Asst. Attorney General.

“If we remain poor and dependent, the riches of other men will not avail us. If we are ignorant, the intelligence of other men will do but little for us. If we are foolish, the wisdom of other men will not guide us. If we are wasteful of time and money, the economy of other men will only make our destitution the more disgraceful and hurtful.”

Frederick Douglass, Republican Civil Rights Activist

SOURCE: 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar