JONATHAN TAKIFF, Daily News Staff Writer takiffj@phillynews.com, 215-854-5960 Posted: Thursday, January 16, 2014, 12:16 AM

WHO'S OCTAVIUS V. Catto? Why is the Mann Center for the Performing Arts launching the first Philadelphia Freedom Festival in his honor, starting next month and culminating with a big concert in July featuring newly commissioned music by Uri Caine, performances by gospel great Dr. Marvin Sapp, a 300-voice choir and the Philadelphia Orchestra?

Ask the average older guy on the street, and he might remember, painfully, a school in West Philadelphia formerly named for Catto (pronounced "Cat-oh").

"It was a place they sent you if you were a bad kid," shared Daniel Biddle, co-author with Murray Dubin of the 2010 biography Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America.

"The name was used by parents and teachers as a threat. 'That's where you're going to wind up, at Catto,' " said Biddle, an editor at the Inquirer, which, like the Daily News, is owned by Interstate General Media. (The school was later renamed to honor singer/activist Paul Robeson.)

"We were looking to do something special, community-based, timed to this year's 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and Catto's name came up, suggested by someone who'd read Tasting Freedom," said Cahill.

"Catto was truly a Renaissance man," added Williams, citing his accomplishments as an educator, athlete, patriot and activist.

Catto took a leadership role in recruiting the first African-American regiments in the previously all-white Union Army of the Civil War. He integrated trolley cars in Philadelphia; and organized and played in Philadelphia's Negro Baseball League team, which had the balls (bats and gloves) to take on white teams.

Leading a high-profile civil rights march, Catto brought thousands of protesters to Broad Street "right here in front of the Union League," noted Dubin, gazing out the club's windows.

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Freedom fest honors another king

Nearly a week after Freedom Industries last spoke publicly, the company broke its silence Thursday evening, proposing a theory that its "Crude MCHM" chemical leak was caused, in part, by a broken water pipe uphill from its property, according to a source close to the company who demanded anonymity.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Nearly a week after Freedom Industries last spoke publicly, the company broke its silence Thursday evening, proposing a theory that its "Crude MCHM" chemical leak was caused, in part, by a broken water pipe uphill from its property, according to a source close to the company who demanded anonymity.

The source said water from the broken pipe flowed under the tank farm, then froze during the recent cold temperatures and expanded, puncturing the tank from below.

"It looks like somebody took a sharp object and stuck it through the bottom," the source said.

He said that even though the tanks were surrounded by a concrete retaining wall, they were sitting on gravel, so the chemical leak seeped through the gravel, into the ground and under the wall.

State officials have described the retaining wall as shoddy and in need of repair. A representative with the Chemical Safety Board, which is inspecting the site, said Thursday that the tank sits on a concrete pad and the soil that surrounds the pad.

West Virginia American Water replaced a leaking water line along Barlow Drive on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a water company spokeswoman. Barlow Drive is where Freedom's tank farm is located.

The leak of Crude MCHM, a coal-processing chemical, contaminated the Elk River and the drinking water of 300,000 residents of the Kanawha Valley.

The Freedom source also attributed blame to what he called a very old terra cotta culvert that runs beneath Freedom's property and helped provide an avenue for the water to collect beneath the tank.

"No one is saying that this is absolutely how it happened," he said, "but there are photos of the inside of the tank that clearly show the upward puncture."

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Freedom breaks silence, blames leak on freeze

Monday will mark the 30th time the Freedom Train has carried people up the Peninsula to San Francisco to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. - but unless it attracts more riders, this may be the last trip.

Only 300 people have bought tickets for Monday's ride, organizers said Thursday. The train has been drawing several hundred fewer passengers in recent years than its 1,600 capacity, but this is the most drastic drop-off yet.

"There won't be a train next year if we can't pack the train on Monday," said Kathleen Flynn, president of the group that organizes the ride, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Santa Clara Valley. "We just can't keep running it with so few people."

Last year the train drew 1,200 passengers. It had been pulling full loads most years until the NAACP chapter in San Jose withdrew its support in 2010 in protest of the train group taking donations from San Jose police officers.

The chapter's president cited media reports alleging misconduct toward minorities by San Jose police, and told The Chronicle at the time, "You don't honor someone just because they give you money."

Some members of the NAACP continued to take the train anyway, but ridership hasn't fully recovered. The NAACP didn't issue any statement actively opposing the train this year, but is continuing to withhold its support - and this time, it is for a different reason.

The Rev. Jethroe Moore II, the chapter's president, said he's now unhappy with the train organization because it is too friendly with San Jose city leaders who are trying to cut public-safety employees' pensions. He'd also like to see it become more active on a wider range of civil rights concerns.

"I would love to see us all get on the page and fight for the citizenry of Santa Clara County," Moore said. "But I'll be very honest - the current board seems to be manipulated."

He added, "I would be sad to see this train end."

Flynn said the NAACP's concerns are misplaced and that she hoped the groups could work out their differences.

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MLK Day Freedom Train hurting for riders

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Edward Snowden, who leaked information on the huge U.S. surveillance programs, will join the Freedom of the Press Foundation board, the organization said.

"I am proud and honored to welcome Edward Snowden to Freedom of the Press Foundation's board of directors. He is the quintessential American whistle-blower, and a personal hero of mine," said foundation co-founder Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers on the U.S. government's decision-making relative to the Vietnam War.

"Leaks are the lifeblood of the republic and, for the first time, the American public has been given the chance to debate democratically the NSA's [National Security Agency] mass surveillance programs," Ellsberg said in a release Tuesday. "Accountability journalism can't be done without the courageous acts exemplified by Snowden, and we need more like him."

The Freedom of the Press Foundation was founded in 2012 to support public-interest journalism dedicated to transparency and accountability.

Snowden, living in Russia after he was granted temporary asylum in August, said it was "tremendously humbling to be called to serve the cause of our free press, and it is the honor of a lifetime to do so alongside extraordinary Americans like Daniel Ellsberg on FPF's board of directors."

"The unconstitutional gathering of the communications records of everyone in America threatens our most basic rights, and the public should have a say in whether or not that continues," Snowden said. "Thanks to the work of our free press, today we do, and if the NSA won't answer to Congress, they'll have to answer to the newspapers, and ultimately, the people."

Snowden will officially join the board of directors in February 2014.

Excerpt from:

Snowden named to Freedom of the Press Foundation board of directors

With 12 Years a Slave getting nine Oscar nominations today, including movie of the year and winning best picture at the Golden Globe Awards Sunday the Freedom Center wants you to know about its self-guided tour to learn more about Solomon Northup, the main character in the film.

Northup was the free black man fromupstate New York who wasabducted and sold into slavery in 1841.

Freedom Center historians last fall created the self-guided tourand booklet with images from the movie. It guides visitors to sevenstationsinside the Freedom Center tolearn more aboutNorthup,and thehistorical context for what Northup might have experienced in his time in slavery, and the role of abolitionists in helping him to re-gain his freedom, according to the Freedom Center announcement today.

In addition to the tour, theFreedom Centers originaldocumentary,Journey to Freedom, plays hourly in the Harriet Tubman Theater. The 35-minute film isbasedon Northupsautobiography. The Freedom Center started working with his family and the publisher of his book about 18 months ago, after they heard about our own documentary on Solomon Northups life that was created through a partnership with the U.S. State Departmentsoffice to combat human trafficking, says Natalie Hastings, Freedom Center strategic communications director. Enquirer reporter Mark Curnutte wrote about the film in November 2012.

Important note: The self-guided tour will NOT be available when the Freedom Center is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday on Martin Luther King Day, due to expected large crowds.

Hours are11 a.m.-5 p.m.Tuesday-Saturday at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 E. Freedom Way, downtown.

Heres a link to our story about todays Academy Award nominations. Heres the media advisory:

12 Years a Slave gets 9 Oscar Nominations

Freedom Center tour connects story to its collection including imagery from film

What: The Solomon Northup Tour. The Solomon Northup Tour, inspired by the Oscar-nominated film 12 Years A Slave, is a self-guided tour of the Freedom Center.

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Learn more about '12 Years a Slave' at Freedom Center

Par Industrial Park in Nitro is the home of Poca Blending, a subsidiary of Freedom Industries. Under orders from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Freedom used tanker trucks to transport all the remaining chemicals from their facility on the Elk River to Poca Blending, a drive of about 17 miles.

NITRO, W.Va. -- It smells like licorice in the Par Industrial Park in Nitro.

Par Industrial Park is the home of Poca Blending, a subsidiary of Freedom Industries. Under orders from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Freedom used tanker trucks to transport all the remaining chemicals from their facility on the Elk River to Poca Blending, a drive of about 17 miles.

Every one of those trucks went within about 100 feet of the Nitro Public Library. The library, which has been closed since the leak was discovered last week, sits about a quarter mile down the road from Poca Blending.

Lynn Godby, the library manager, was at work on Wednesday morning, beginning the process of flushing the building's pipes so they could reopen today.

She had no idea that the tanker trucks that had driven by contained 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol from Freedom Industries, or that the chemical was being stored so close by.

"It makes me a little uneasy," Godby said Wednesday. "You don't like to think they're just right down the road."

On Tuesday state regulators cited Freedom Industries for a broad variety of violations after an inspection of the Poca Blending site. The state Department of Environmental Protection issued five notices of violation, or NOVs, alleging improper storage of materials that could contaminate groundwater, failure to follow a DEP-issued stormwater permit, failure to provide required pollution discharge monitoring reports.

Interestingly, the DEP also cited Freedom's Nitro operation for not having the appropriate "secondary containment" for chemical spills -- a problem that regulators have said was a major cause of last Thursday's spill of "Crude MCHM" into the Elk River.

"Secondary containment within the facility was deteriorated or non-existent," the DEP said in an inspection report. "The plan indicates that the building itself acts a secondary containment, but holes exist at floor level in the building's walls.

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Freedom cited after moving chemical from Elk River site