Freedom Calendar 05/14/05 - 05/21/05

May 14, 1971, Republican Senators Jacob Javits (NY) and Charles Percy (IL) appoint the first female pages in U.S. Senate.

May 15, 1999, Death of Judge John Minor Wisdom of U.S. Court of Appeals, renowned author of landmark civil rights decisions; appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower to key Fifth Circuit covering Southern states.

May 16, 1860, U.S. Rep. David Wilmot (R-PA), anti-slavery leader and Republican Party co-founder, delivers keynote address at Republican National Convention nominating Abraham Lincoln.

May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren, three-term Republican Governor (CA) and Republican vice presidential nominee in 1948, wins unanimous support of Supreme Court for school desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education.

May 18, 1896, Republican Justice John Marshall Harlan, dissenting from Supreme Court’s notorious Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” decision, declares: “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens”.

May 19, 1870, African-American John Langston, law professor and future Republican Congressman from Virginia, delivers influential speech supporting President Ulysses Grant’s civil rights policies.

May 20, 1868, Republican National Convention marks debut of African-American politicians on national stage; two – Pinckney Pinchback and James Harris – attend as delegates, and several serve as presidential electors.

May 21, 1919, Republican House passes constitutional amendment granting women the vote with 85% of Republicans in favor, but only 54% of Democrats; in Senate, 80% of Republicans would vote yes, but almost half of Democrats no.

“Much can be done by law towards putting women on a footing of complete and entire equal rights with man — including the right to vote, the right to hold and use property, and the right to enter any profession she desires on the same terms as the man...Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly.”

SOURCE: 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar Theodore Roosevelt 26th President of the United States