Also the owner of the Philadelphia Pythians (one of the first Negro League baseball teams), Octavius Catto was a civil rights activist in Philadelphia. Affectionately known as the “19th Century Martin Luther King,” Catto was shot down on Election Day 1871 when fights broke out between black and white voters. The guy who killed him was not convicted of any charges, but was convicted of being an asshole in opposition of Black Suffrage. Today, you can see Catto as a sculpture outside of City Hall, the first public monument in the city to honor a specific African American:
