Freedom Calendar 02/17/07 - 02/24/07

February 17, 1973, Republican Navy Secretary John Warner commissions frigate in honor of first African-American naval aviator, Jesse L. Brown, who died in combat during Korean War.

February 18, 1946, Appointed by Republican President Calvin Coolidge, federal judge Paul McCormick ends segregation of Mexican-American children in California public schools.

February 19, 1976, President Gerald Ford formally rescinds President Franklin Roosevelt’s notorious Executive Order authorizing internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII.

February 20, 1895, Death of Republican activist Frederick Douglass – escaped slave, author, abolition leader, civil rights champion.

Presidents’ Day, February 21, 1863, Republican Governor John Andrew establishes the 54th Massachusetts, the famous regiment of African-American U.S. troops in which two of Frederick Douglass’ sons served.

February 22, 1856, First national meeting of the Republican Party, in Pittsburgh, to coordinate opposition to Democrats’ pro-slavery policies.

February 23, 1990, President George H. W. Bush nominates African-American Republican Arthur Fletcher as Chairman of the U.S. Civil Service Commission.

February 24, 1992, President George H. W. Bush appoints African-American Edward Perkins as U.S. Ambassador to United Nations.

“The Republican Party, on the contrary [to the Democrats], holds that this government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and that slavery is an unqualified evil… . [Republicans] will oppose in all its length and breadth the modern Democratic idea that slavery is as good as freedom.”

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States

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