Freedom Calendar 04/12/08 - 04/19/08

April 12, 1824, Birth of African-American U.S. Rep. Richard Cain (R-SC); served 1873-75 and 1877-79, securing passage of civil rights legislation.

April 13, 1933, Birth of Native American U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO)

April 14, 1896, George Myers, nationally prominent African-American Republican, rallies southern blacks to support William McKinley, helping him win 1896 presidential nomination.

April 15, 1929, U.S. Rep. Oscar De Priest (R-IL) becomes first African-American in Congress since 1901

April 16, 1862, President Lincoln signs bill abolishing slavery in District of Columbia; in Congress, 99% of Republicans vote yes, 83% of Democrats vote no.

April 17, 1823, Birth of Arkansas Republican Mifflin Gibbs, elected in 1873 as first African-American judge; later appointed by President William McKinley as Consul to Madagascar.

April 18, 1920, Minnesota’s first-in-the-nation anti-lynching law, promoted by African-American Republican Nellie Francis, signed by Republican Gov. Jacob Preus.

April 19, 1866, Thousands assemble in Washington, DC to celebrate Republican Party’s abolition of slavery.

“No man is above the law, and no man is below it.”

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

Technorati Tags: President Bush and Freedom Calendar or NAACP and Republicans or African-Americans and 13th Amendment or right to vote and Civil Rights or Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass or 40 acres and a mule or Brown v. Board of Education and Martin Luther King or Dred Scott