I was reading about civil rights pioneer Octavius Valentine Catto in today's paper thanks to Solomon Leach. The more I found out about him the more interesting he got. So I devoted tomorrow's print column to him.

Here you have a guy, a black Republican, who was pro-military (he was a major in the Pa National Guard), pro-handgun (when he needed one he went and bought one) pro-education (he read Greek and Latin and studied higher mathematics) was pro equal rights (not the affirmitive action sort) and was assassinated by a racist who was abetted (and not convicted) by Philadelphia's Democratic political machine.

The guy's life story would make a great movie. But don't hold your breath waiting for it. He was, after all, a Republican.