Page 42 - WilmU Spring Summer 2013

FrederickDouglass.
Harriet Tubman.
Rosa Parks.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Octavius Catto?
Unless you’re a descendant of the la er,
chances are you’ve never heard of this
19th-century black schoolteacher, baseball player
and activist.
You won’t find him in your middle-school
history textbook. No one’s ever made a movie
about him. And you don’t get a day off on his
birthday.
But, as two Philadelphia journalists
discovered, Octavius Ca o did just as much to
reshape the future of blacks in the United States
as any of those other well-known civil rights
leaders, if not more.
Daniel Biddle and Murray Dubin published
“Tasting Freedom: Octavius Ca o and the
Ba le for Equality in Civil War America” in
September 2010. Since then, they’ve embarked
on a whirlwind tour spanning the tri-state area,
appearing at book clubs, college classes and
Civil War commemorations.
Biddle – sans Dubin, who was busy celebrating
the birth of his grandson – visitedWilmington
University on Feb. 6, happily spreading the
gospel of Octavius Ca o to dozens of students,
faculty and staff, and later signing copies of his
book and cha ing with intrigued a endees. The
appearance, held at the new Student Center in
the Pra Building, was part of the University’s
commemoration of Black History Month, and
was sponsored by the College of Arts & Science,
Student Life and the University Library.
Also on hand at the event were Eugene and
Teal Pe y, local pioneers in the preservation
of Delaware’s black heritage and instrumental
figures in the renovation of The Bu onwood
School in New Castle, a school for black children
from 1924 to 1955 that recently has been
restored.
“This couple has shepherded the Bu onwood
School project through thick and thin for many
years. It is quite an honor to have them a end
our Black History event,” said library director
James McCloskey.
The elderly couple sat in the audience and
listened intently to Biddle as he read passages
from his book and explained how he and Dubin
came to immortalize a man few had ever heard
of.
Before stumbling onto Ca o, Biddle was
focusing on his day job as the political editor for
the Philadelphia Inquirer. Like many journalists,
FREEDOMINNAMEONLY
Co-author recounts the life of little-known post-Civil War leader at campus book signing
BY JAIME BENDER
Right: Daniel Biddle, author of “Tasting
Freedom,” describes his experience of learning
about Octavius Ca o and the racial unrest of
Civil War America.
Opposite page: Cover of “Tasting Freedom.”
PHOTO BY SUSAN GREGG
WILMINGTON UNIVERSIT Y MAGAZINE