Freedom Calendar 10/08/05 - 10/015/05

October 8, 1898, Republican Joseph Simon (R-OR) elected as first Jewish U.S. Senator outside the former Confederacy.

October 9, 1886, Death of Rep. Benjamin Arnett (R-OH), first African-American to represent a majority white constituency in a state legislature.

October 10, 1871, Following warnings by Philadelphia Democrats against black voting, African-American Republican civil rights activist Octavius Catto murdered by Democratic Party operative; his military funeral was attended by thousands.

October 11, 1972, Horacio Rivero, first Hispanic four-star Admiral, appointed by President Richard Nixon as U.S. Ambassador to Spain.

October 12, 1813, Birth of Senator Lyman Trumbull, (R-IL), author of Republican Party’s 13th Amendment banning slavery, and of Civil Rights Act of 1866 granting full citizenship to African-Americans.

October 13, 1858, During Lincoln-Douglas debates, U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas (D-IL) states: “I do not regard the Negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever”; Douglas became Democratic Party’s 1860 presidential nominee.

October 14, 1890, Birth of Dwight Eisenhower, who as President spearheaded Republican civil rights initiatives including 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts; used federal troops, marshals, and Justice Dept. officials to force Democrat governors to desegregate public schools.

October 15, 1914, African-American Republican James Weldon Johnson, celebrated poet of Harlem Renaissance movement, becomes editor of leading black journal, New York Age; served as Theodore Roosevelt’s Consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua

“Every right that has been bestowed upon blacks was initiated by the Republican Party.”

Mary Terrell, African-American Republican and co-founder of the NAACP

SOURCE: 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar more at Freedom Calendar or Republican and Republicans or African-Americans and Harlem Renaissance or civil rights