Octavius Valentine Catto was an orator who shared stages with Frederick Douglass, a second baseman on Philadelphia’s best black baseball team, a teacher at the city’s finest black school and an activist who fought in the state capital and on the streets for equal rights. With his racially-charged murder, the nation lost a civil rights pioneer—one who risked his life a century before Selma and Birmingham. 

In Tasting Freedom Murray Dubin and Pulitzer Prize winner Dan Biddle painstakingly chronicle the life of this charismatic black leader—a “free” black whose freedom was in name only. Born in the American south, where slavery permeated everyday life, he moved north where he joined the fight to be truly free—free to vote, go to school, ride on streetcars, play baseball and even participate in July 4th celebrations.   

Catto electrified a biracial audience in 1864 when he proclaimed, “There must come a change,” calling on free men and women to act and educate the newly freed slaves. With a group of other African Americans who called themselves a “band of brothers,” they challenged one injustice after another. Tasting Freedom presents the little-known stories of Catto and the men and women who struggled to change America.

Temple University's alumni number over a quarter million, andinclude entertainment legend Bill Cosby and Shirley Tilghman, the first woman president of Princeton University. One of every eight college graduates in the Philadelphia area received their degrees at Temple. Temple Owls are everywhere!

Temple University: 125 Years of Service to Philadelphia, the Nation, and the World, by noted historian and Temple professor James Hilty offers the first full history of Temple University. Lovingly written and beautifully designed, it presents a rich chronicle from founder Russell Conwell’s vision to democratize, diversify, and broaden the reach of higher education to Temple's present-day status as the twenty-eighth largest university and the fifth largest provider of professional education in the United States. With its state-of-the-art technological capabilities, improved amenities, and new multi-million- dollar facilities, Temple remains at the forefront of America’s modern urban universities.

The book captures Temple’s long record of service to its North Philadelphia neighbors, its global reach to Rome, Tokyo, and beyond, and its development from a rowhouse campus into a lively 11,000- resident urban village—all the while assuring “Access to Excellence.” Along the way, we learn how Temple reacted to and helped shape major developments in the history of American higher education.

Featuring 250 full-color photos, Temple University provides a wonderful keepsake for those who already know the university and will become a valued resource for anyone interested in the urban university.