Freedom Calendar 03/31/07 - 04/07/07

March 31, 1806, Birth of U.S. Senator John Hale (R-NH), early leader of Republicans’ anti-slavery movement in Congress.

April 1, 1846, Born into slavery on this day, Jeremiah Haralson (R-AL) served in state legislature before being elected to U.S. House in 1874.

April 2, 1855, Republican John Langston becomes nation’s first African-American elected official, in Brownhelm, OH; later served as U.S. Rep. (R-VA) and as diplomat in Republican administrations.

April 3, 1944, U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Texas Democratic Party’s “whites only” primary election system.

April 4, 1887, Republican Susanna Salter of Argonia, KS is first woman elected mayor in nation.

April 5, 1839, Birth of African-American U.S. Rep. Robert Smalls (R-SC), who escaped slavery by commandeering a Confederate gunboat.

April 6, 1869, Republican Ebenezer Bassett is first African-American presidential appointment, as President Ulysses Grant’s Minister to Haiti.

April 7, 1862, President Lincoln concludes treaty with Britain for suppression of slave trade.

“I believe the time will come when the sense of justice of this nation, when the enlightenment of this century, when the wisdom of our legislators, when the good feeling of the whole people will complete this grand work by lifting up out of degradation a race of men which has served long and faithfully by placing it, so far as the laws are concerned, upon an equal footing with all other classes. I have faith in this country.”

Rep. Joseph Rainey (R-SC), the first African-American in the U.S. House of Representatives (1870-79)

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