Alfred S. Cassey
Son Alfred S. Cassey continued his father's legacy for being foremost in the ranks of the African-American elite of the day. A postal worker and performing musician, although his early trade was as a gilder, carver, and painter of ornamental work, Alfred was the first Chair of the American Negro Historical Society in 1897 and lived with his family in this house. He was active in the boycott campaign to end discrimination of black troops in 1864. Black soldiers at Camp William Penn were stationed in leaky tents while their white counterparts were housed in barracks, family members were not allowed to visit, black soldiers were paid $3 less than white soldiers, or only $10 per month, and had to provide their own clothing while military clothing was provided for white soldiers. Black soldiers were not allowed to ride the trolleys into town if the cars were full of white soldiers. This campaign led to the formation of the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League in 1864.
During the 1860s, Alfred signed the petition to singer Madame Mary Brown and the open Call to Arms during the Civil War. Along with Alfred, a Joseph W. Cassey (relation unknown, Alfred's son?) signed these same petitions. Alfred was active in the Masons of Philadelphia, was pall-bearer at the funeral of Colonel McKee in 1902, and donated many old concert programs to the William Dorsey Collection, now at Cheyney University.
Read more about this topic: The Cassey House, Offspring of Joseph and Amy Cassey
Famous quotes containing the word alfred:
“Not out of those, on whom systems of education have exhausted their culture, comes the helpful giant to destroy the old or to build the new, but out of unhandselled savage nature, out of terrible Druids and Berserkirs, come at last Alfred and Shakespeare.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)