On October 10, 2007, a marker was placed at the long-lost grave site of Octavius V. Catto in Eden Cemetery, Collingdale, Pa., just outside Philadelphia. The marker, which reads “The Forgotten Hero, 1839-1871,” honors the 19th Century African-American leader who raised regiments of black troops for the Civil War, fought to integrate Philadelphia trolleys, championed higher education and voting rights for African Americans, and was killed on an election day as he worked for black political empowerment. Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) supports the Octavius V. Catto Memorial Fund as it selects a design and raises funds for a Catto Statue on the plaza at Philadelphia City Hall. Congressman Fattah offered to following tribute to Catto in remarks printed in the Congressional Record of October 9, 2007:

Madam Speaker, I share today the good news that a great Philadelphian of another time, whose life, accomplishments and even his burial site have been lost in obscurity for too long, is finally being restored to prominence.

Octavius Valentine Catto, a champion of African American empowerment, civil rights and civil disobedience before those terms were even in use, was assassinated by a political thug on October 10, 1871, during a Philadelphia municipal election. Catto was walking between his South Street home and a nearby polling place on a riot-torn day during which he had been organizing African Americans to exercise their newfound franchise and throw out a corrupt local political machine.

Catto has been called a renaissance man for all that he undertook and accomplished in his short life (1839-1871). He was a classically trained student and then professor at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, the forerunner of Cheyney University; an officer in an all-black unit of the Pennsylvania National Guard during the Civil War who insisted on a meaningful role for his soldiers; and even manager-second baseman for the Pythian Baseball Club, a renowned and pioneering all-black team. In the 1860s Catto, along with another prominent Philadelphian, the black abolitionist William Still, organized a civil disobedience campaign that led to laws desegregating Philadelphia's trolley car system.

Catto's assassination led to a massive public funeral and an outcry for justice. But gradually his deeds and memory faded from view. His remains were relocated from Lebanon Cemetery in Southwest Philadelphia to Eden Cemetery in Delaware County in 1903, but contemporary admirers haven't even known where to find his resting place.

On the anniversary of O.V. Catto's assassination, October 10, 1871, a group of Philadelphians led by Philadelphia City Council member Jim Kenney are changing all that. At a ceremony that includes representatives of the Philadelphia Union League, to which Catto belonged, Cheyney University; the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge and others, a permanent headstone is being installed and dedicated at Eden Cemetery, 1434 Springfield Road, Collingdale, Pennsylvania. Significantly, his modest burial site is not far from the tomb of William Still. A permanent and appropriate headstone for Catto soon will follow.

That's not all. A site has been designated on the plaza outside Philadelphia City Hall for the construction of a statue of Catto. A design competition and fundraising effort are being launched by the O.V. Catto Memorial Fund under the leadership of Carol Clark Lawrence, the Fund's Chair, and Jim Straw, the Co-Chair. The Fund will also develop an educational program to assure that future generations will be well aware of the contributions of this outstanding Philadelphian.

Octavius V. Catto is an inspiration to Philadelphians of all races. The telling of his story is long overdue. And now it begins.