# Octavius Catto's 1871 Election Day Murder

> Philadelphia's Black suffrage leader Octavius Catto was killed during violent election day protests in 1871.
- Title: Octavius Catto's 1871 Election Day Murder · The Conversation
- Summary: Philadelphia's Black suffrage leader Octavius Catto was killed during violent election day protests in 1871. Octavius Catto, a Black suffrage leader, was…
- Keywords: octavius catto, philadelphia, black suffrage, election day 1871, civil rights, 15th amendment, white supremacists, murder, science, ideas, Octavius, Catto's
- Source: The Conversation — https://theconversation.com/murder-of-black-suffrage-leader-octavius-catto-reveals-why-election-day-1871-was-one-of-the-most-violent-in-philadelphia-history-292879
- Author: Timothy Welbeck
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: octavius catto, philadelphia, black suffrage, election day 1871, civil rights, 15th amendment, white supremacists, murder, science, ideas
## Octavius Catto's statue unveiled
Philadelphia installed a 12-foot bronze statue of Octavius Catto outside City Hall in 2017, the city's first statue honoring an individual Black person.
## Catto's assassination location
Octavius Catto Way was renamed on Oct. 8, 2026, where Catto was assassinated 155 years ago during Philadelphia's violent Election Day 1871.
## Catto's background
Octavius Catto was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1839 to a free Black woman named Sarah Isabella Cain and a formerly enslaved man named William Catto.
## Catto's early career
Catto graduated at the top of his class from the Institute for Colored Youth in 1858 and taught English and mathematics there.
## Catto's civil rights work
Catto worked with Frederick Douglass to recruit all-Black regiments for the Union Army and co-founded the Philadelphian Pythians baseball club.
## 15th Amendment impact
The 15th Amendment guaranteed voting rights for citizens regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, re-founding the United States as a multiracial democracy.
## Philadelphia's voting restrictions
Philadelphia's Constitution of 1776 restricted the vote to freemen, defined as those who were twenty-one years old, had lived in the state for one year, and paid taxes.
## Election Day violence
On Election Day 1871, armed mobs harassed Black neighborhoods, attacked residents, and closed polling locations in Philadelphia.
## Catto's murder
Around 3:30 p.m., Catto was fatally shot by Frank Kelly, a political operative who opposed Black suffrage, near his home in Philadelphia.
## Key takeaway

Octavius Catto, a Black suffrage leader, was murdered by white supremacists on Philadelphia's Election Day 1871.