Freedom Calendar 05/12/07 - 05/19/07

May 12, 1850, Birth of U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA), whose 1890 Federal Elections Bill enforcing African-American voting rights passed House on party-line vote but was defeated in Senate by a Democrat filibuster.

May 13, 1983, President Ronald Reagan designates first national observance of American Indian Day.

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.

“Believing that the spirit of our institutions as well as the Constitution of our country, guarantees liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens, we oppose all legislation impairing their security.”

1856 Republican Party national platform

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