Massachusetts senator beaten nearly to death with a gutta-percha cane

Mass. Moments alerts us that today is the anniversary of Charles Sumner's beating on the floor of the US Senate, by a South Carolina congressman determined to uphold the honor of his uncle, a senator Sumner had declared was in bed with "the harlot, Slavery."

Charles Sumner was an exceptional abolitionist; he not only opposed the institution of slavery but saw black men and women as human beings who were entitled to equal civil rights. He was ahead of his time in many ways. In 1849 he represented black parents in a case to desegregate Boston schools. In his argument before the Supreme Judicial Court, he asserted that segregation hurt white children as much as it did black children.