Civil rights hero Catto celebrated in song

PHILADELPHIA A celebration of 19th-century civil rights pioneer Octavius V. Catto began Saturday at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in a burst of song.

On the 175th anniversary of Catto's birth, the towering voices of three church choirs delivered the soul-stirring "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" and other spirituals and the fervent verses of hymns like "The Storm is Passing Over."

The program ended with the choirs joining the hundreds filling the wooden pews, who linked hands and sang the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" as late-afternoon sunlight poured through the stained-glass windows of the historic church in Society Hill.

Called "Let Freedom Sing," the event was the first in a series the Mann Center for the Performing Arts has organized for its Philadelphia Freedom Festival to pay homage to the life and legacy of Catto.

Known locally and nationally for his work furthering the rights of African Americans, including the right to vote, Catto was murdered on the doorstep of his home on South Street during violence aimed at preventing black citizens from voting on Election Day in 1871.

"This is really a celebration of freedom through songs that were important in the life of the black community from the period of slavery to the present," said the Rev. Mark K. Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel, which was founded in 1790 by Richard Allen, an African American Methodist minister.

"I'm glad that the celebration is beginning here," Tyler said in an interview. "I think it's an appropriate place when you consider all that has happened at this site."

He said Catto was very familiar with the church and was killed only a few blocks away.

Coming events include panel discussions, poetry readings, and a finale concert at the Mann on July 19 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, a 300-voice choir, and the performance of a composition by Philadelphia native Uri Caine commissioned for the festival.

A complete schedule is available at www.manncenter.org/philadelphia-freedom-festival

At Mother Bethel on Saturday, inspirational messages were interspersed among the music as Tyler and pastors from Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Mount Airy and the Salem Baptist Church in Jenkintown reflected on Catto, the words resistance, equality, and perseverance, and the continuing struggle to achieve equity and justice.

"Perseverance says we cannot give up," said the Rev. Alyn E. Waller, pastor of Enon Tabernacle.

"This was an amazing experience," said Julia Callahan, a staffer with the Philadelphia School District who sat in a back pew with her aunt Lilly Bost.

Essie Davis, who recently retired after four decades as secretary of the men's basketball program at Temple University, was thrilled about the program, as was her friend Barbara Cunningham of Mount Airy.

Charles Barrow of Swarthmore had one word for the musical celebration at Mother Bethel: awesome.

The retired English teacher from the Chester Upland School District added, "It brought back the spirit of the civil rights movement."