The Black Experience: African-Americans On Postage Stamps

Since the founding of the United
States, African Americans have played a pivotal role in the shaping of
American history and heritage. Their contributions to America have
included the fields highlighted by the 1940 Famous Americans and many
more. This exhibit showcases the black experience in the
United States through the lens of American postage stamps. 

Booker T. Washington stamp

On April 7, 1940 the United States released the 10-cent Booker T. Washington stamp as part of the 1940 Famous Americans Issue. This was the first time that an African American was commemorated on a United States postage stamp. The Famous Americans Issue included thirty-five different Americans who made important contributions to the fields of poetry, literature, education, science, music, art and mechanical innovation.



In 1881, Booker T. Washington became the first principal at Alabama’s Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University), and over the next several decades, he emerged as the foremost educator and spokesman for African Americans. Washington also helped found the National Negro Business League in 1900 and served as an advisor to presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.

Early Pioneers

A self-taught mathematician and astronomer, Benjamin Banneker was probably the most accomplished African American of America’s colonial period. In 1753, he constructed the first wooden striking clock made in America. His studies and calculations in astronomy allowed him to successfully predict a solar eclipse in 1789 and to publish farmer’s almanacs in the 1790s. In 1791 he helped design and survey the city of Washington, D.C.

"The color of the skin is in no way connected with the strength of the mind or intellectual powers" -Benjamin Banneker.

Fighting For An End To Slavery

Born a slave, abolitionist Harriet Tubman was the first African-American woman to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp. After escaping slavery in 1849, Tubman returned to the south many times to bring other slaves to freedom, including members of her own family. This dangerous work made her a conductor for the famed Underground Railroad, which helped many slaves escape to freedom before and during the Civil War. She served the Union Army during the Civil War as a scout and spy.

Harriet Tubman was the first honoree in the Black Heritage series.

Fighting For An End To Slavery

Sojourner Truth was one of the most inspirational and widely known African-Americans of the 19th century. She was born Isabella Bomefree (also spelled “Baumfree”) in 1797, a slave in New York, but received her freedom in 1828. In the 1830s, she became involved in evangelical movements, and in 1843 she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and began traveling and preaching. Her autobiography, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, was published in 1850, and her speeches against slavery and for women’s suffrage drew large crowds. In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln received her at the White House, and from 1864 to 1868 she worked with the National Freedmen’s Relief Association to advise former slaves as they started new lives.

Fighting For An End To Slavery

Frederick Douglass argued against slavery and for equal rights with such clarity and precision that he earned a reputation as America’s predominant African-American abolitionist and agitator during the 19th century. As founder and editor of the North Star and a leading proponent of the antislavery movement, he convincingly expressed the moral issues of human freedom and equality. He believed that the status of African-Americans was the touchstone of American democracy. Because of these beliefs, he became known as the “father of the civil rights movement.”

This Frederick Douglass stamp was issued February 14, 1967 as part of the Prominent Americans Definitive stamp series.

Shaping Education

African-Americans have played a pivotal role in the development of educational practices and institutions, not just for fellow African-Americans, but for all Americans.

W.E.B. Du Bois was a critic, editor, scholar, author, civil rights leader, and one of the most influential African-Americans of both the 19th and 20th centuries. He is often called the “father of social science” for his trail-blazing approach to studying social systems and phenomena. He was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909, and he served for 25 years as the editor-inchief of the NAACP’s Crisis magazine.

Through the NAACP's "The Crisis", Du Bois drew the critical eye of the nation and Congress to the horrors of lynching and the mistreatment of returning black soldiers from World War I. In later years, Du Bois turned his attention to the global issues of race and the Pan-African Movement.

The Fight For Civil Rights: MLK

Ever since the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, which abolished slavery as an amendment to the United States Constitution, African-Americans have been fighting for equal rights. Many of these influential black Americans have been portrayed on postage stamps.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most powerful and popular leader of the African-American protest movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He spearheaded mass action through marches, sit-ins, boycotts, and nonviolent demonstrations that profoundly and positively affected America’s attitudes toward racial prejudice and discrimination. In 1963, he became the first African-American honored as TIME magazine’s Man of the Year, and he was presented the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

The Fight For Civil Rights

Roy Wilkins was a U.S. civil rights leader. In 1931, he was appointed assistant executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the largest civil rights organization in the United States. In 1955, he was named the NAACP’s executive secretary, a position he held for the next 22 years. As a writer and spokesman for the civil rights movement, he inspired presidents and members of Congress to pay attention to the rights of African Americans. When asked to describe his greatest satisfaction in life, he pointed to the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954 that ended segregation in public schools.

One Activist: From Slavery To Civil Rights

As an educator, scholar, feminist and activist, Anna Julia Cooper (c.1858-1964), gave voice to the African-American community during the 19th and 20th centuries from the end of slavery to the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.

Cooper, best known for her groundbreaking collection of essays and speeches, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, also exhibited educational leadership, most notably challenging the racist notion that African Americans were naturally inferior.

The Fight For Civil Rights: Marshall

Famed civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall was one of the best known lawyers in the history of civil rights in America. He became the first director-counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. In 1954, Marshall and his legal team prevailed in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that struck down segregation in public schools. President Kennedy appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1961. In 1965 President Johnson appointed him the first African-American solicitor general of the United States. Marshall made history again in 1967, when he was sworn in as the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court. His 24-year tenure was marked by his commitment to defending constitutional rights and affirmative action and by his strong opposition to the death penalty. Thurgood Marshall died on January 24, 1993, at the age of 85. On November 30, 1993, he was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom-our country’s highest civilian honor.

The Fight For Civil Rights

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of a Baptist preacher. In 1931, Malcolm’s father was killed, probably murdered because of his political and social activism. For Malcolm, this started a spiral into a life of crime that ended with his being sentenced to prison for burglary. While in prison, Malcolm became a militant activist and a follower of the Nation of Islam, a black nationalist religious movement based on traditional Islamic teachings and Marcus Garvey’s principles of black nationalism. After his release from prison, Malcolm became a powerful spokesman for the movement, one who was both popular yet polarizing. But in 1964 he split from the movement and started the Organization of Afro-American Unity, and after a trip to Mecca, he took the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and came to believe that the world’s people could live in fellowship.

"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."- Malcolm X

Civil Rights Pioneers Issue

Throughout Mary Church Terrell's (1863-1954) long life as a writer, activist, and lecturer, she was a powerful advocate for racial justice and women’s rights in America and abroad. The portrait of Mary Church Terrell used for the stamp honoring her is from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Mary White Ovington (1865-1951), a journalist and social worker, believed passionately in racial equality and was a founder of the NAACP. The photograph of Mary White Ovington used on the stamp honoring her was taken between 1930 and 1940. It is part of the NAACP archival collection at the Library of Congress.

Civil Rights Pioneers Issue

Oswald Garrison Villard (1872-1949) was one of the founders of the NAACP and wrote “The Call” leading to its formation. His undated portrait used on the stamp honoring him comes from the records of the NAACP at the Library of Congress.

Daisy Gatson Bates (1914-1999) mentored nine black students who enrolled at all-white Central High School in Little Rock, AR, in 1957. The students used her home as an organizational hub. The 1957 photograph of Bates is from the New York World-Telegram & Sun Newspaper photographic collection at the Library of Congress.

Civil Rights Pioneers Issue

J.R. Clifford (1848-1933) was the first black attorney licensed in West Virginia. In two landmark cases before his state’s Supreme Court, he attacked racial discrimination in education. The image of J.R. Clifford is a detail from an undated photograph from the University of Massachusetts Library Special Collections.

Because coverage of blacks in the media tended to be negative, Joel Elias Spingarn (1875-1939) endowed the prestigious Spingarn Medal, awarded annually since 1915, to highlight black achievement. The portrait of Joel Elias Spingarn is dated in the 1920s and comes from the records of NAACP at the Library of Congress.

Civil Rights Pioneers Issue

Ella Baker's (1903-1986) lifetime of activism made her a skillful organizer. She encouraged women and young people to assume positions of leadership in the civil rights movement. The portrait of Ella Baker is dated between 1943 and 1946 and is from NAACP records at the Library of Congress.

As a courageous and capable official with the NAACP, Ruby Hurley (1909-1980) did difficult, dangerous work in the South. Hurley’s image is from a 1963 newspaper photo.

Advances In Science

America has always been at the forefront of scientific and medical research. Millions of Americans every day are affected either directly or indirectly by contributions made by African-American scientists and doctors.

George Washington Carver improved the quality of life for millions of people through his scientific contributions in agriculture. The many products he developed from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans helped relieve southern agriculture of one-crop dependency, increased agricultural productivity, aided diet and nutrition, and raised poor farmers’ hopes.

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom."- George Washington Carver

Prominent Diplomats

Patricia Harris (1924-1985) was raised to believe that education was the means for success. She graduated first in her class in the Howard University law school and began a long, distinguished career as a lawyer, educator and public administrator. At Howard, she served as dean and professor as well as President Kennedy’s appointed chairperson of the National Women’s Committee. Harris’ work continued as she became the first female African American U.S. ambassador and the first African American woman appointed to a presidential cabinet.

Prominent Journalists

Ida B. Wells devoted her life to educating people about the horrors of discrimination against African-Americans and women. Her first job was as a teacher, but she became a journalist when she started to write about her experiences of suing a railroad company for discrimination. Much of her journalism career centered on the anti-lynching crusade and voting rights for women. She was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and she founded the first suffrage club for African-American women.

"The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press."-Ida B. Wells

Enriching American Music With Jazz

Edward K. “Duke” Ellington is considered one of the greatest composers and orchestra conductors of the 20th century. Primarily associated with jazz, Ellington became nationally known through live broadcasts from the Cotton Club in New York City, and some of his most famous compositions include “Mood Indigo,” “Take the ‘A’ Train,” and “Satin Doll.” One of his most celebrated works is "Black, Brown, and Beige," a musical history of African-Americans. In 1969, Ellington received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

"There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone."- Duke Ellington

Enriching American Music With Jazz

Born Eleanora Fagan, Billie Holiday was one of the most influential jazz singers of all time. Known as “Lady Day,” she had a distinctive light timbre and graceful phrasing, even when singing popular jazz tunes dealing with heartbreak, despair, and loneliness. But whether the song was heavy and sorrowful or light and lively, Holiday’s presentation always seemed to carry a somber, wounded sadness and powerful emotional intensity.

"You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling."- Billie Holiday

Jazz Musicians

A talented bass player, pianist, composer, and bandleader, Charles Mingus was a notable 20th century musician. He toured with some of the famous big bands of the 1940s (including the Louis Armstrong Orchestra), accompanied many pioneering jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, and led diverse ensembles. In the 1950s, to safeguard and archive his enlarging collection of original music, Mingus created his own recording and publishing companies. He toured extensively in the United States and abroad until 1977, when he was diagnosed with the rare nerve disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease”).

Ragtime

A composer and pianist, Scott Joplin is known as the “king of ragtime,” a significant development in modern music that combined African-American harmonies and rhythms with other musical styles. In 1899, Joplin composed “Maple Leaf Rag,” which was the genre’s biggest hit. He included ragtime songs in his opera Treemonisha, the first opera composed by an African-American.

“When I'm dead twenty-five years, people are going to begin to recognize me.”- Scott Joplin

In 1976, almost 60 years after his death, Joplin was awarded a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to music.

Folk Singers

Josh White was one of the most popular and influential folksingers in America in the mid-20th century. His most famous song, “One Meat Ball,” is about a poor man who has little money to buy dinner and who gets little sympathy from the waiter serving him. The folk music genre has often had a strong social and political foundation, and White’s career is a clear example of that; he sang for President Franklin Roosevelt at the White House in the 1940s, he suffered from the effects of McCarthyism in the 1950s, and he was a featured performer at the 1963 March on Washington.

Folk Singers

Sonny Terry was born on October 24, 1911 in North Carolina as Saunders Terrell. He is most famous for playing the harmonica mixed with a distinct vocal accompaniment. Terry learned to play the harmonica despite a childhood accident that left him almost completely blind. For more than fifty years, Sonny Terry toured the United States playing folk and blues music. His collaboration with guitarist Brownie McGhee produced what the two called “folk-blues” music. Terry died in Mineola, New York on March 12, 1986.

Mixing Musical Traditions

Born in Dawson, Georgia, in 1941, Otis Redding began his singing career in the church choir. As a teenager, he competed in local talent shows and started to work professionally. In the mid-1960s, Redding had a number of hit songs and his style and popularity were growing. But on December 10, 1967, he died in a plane crash. Just a few days before his death, he had recorded “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” which eventually reached the top spot on the pop charts.

Famous Singers

During the 20th Century two African-American women altered the landscape of performance singing and recording. Marian Anderson had her professional debut at the New York Philharmonic on August 26, 1925. Ella Fitzgerald began singing in the mid 1930s and had her first number one hit with "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" in 1938 at the age of twenty-one.

Anderson is probably best remembered for her performance at the Lincoln Memorial after not being allowed by the Daughters of the American Revolution to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. Her performance was attended by 75,000 people and broadcast on national radio.

Paul Robeson & Show Boat

Paul Robeson was a tireless and uncompromising advocate for civil rights and social justice. At Rutgers University, he was a 2-year All-American in football, valedictorian, and a Phi Beta Kappa. Later, he earned a law degree at Columbia University, but soon turned to singing and acting. He was especially known for his renditions of black spirituals and also his stage role in Othello. By the late 1930s, he had become very active and outspoken on behalf of racial justice, social progress, and international peace.

Hattie McDaniel & Gone With The Wind

Hattie McDaniel was the first African American nominated for an Academy Award and the first to receive an Academy Award.

"Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, fellow members of the motion picture industry and honored guests: This is one of the happiest moments of my life, and I want to thank each one of you who had a part in selecting for one of the awards, for your kindness. It has made me feel very, very humble; and I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything that I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel, and may I say thank you and God bless you."- Hattie McDaniel’s Academy Awards acceptance speech

Famous Poets

Poet and author Paul Laurence Dunbar was so adept at writing verse in African-American dialect that he was called the “poet of his people.” He had such talent and versatility that his brilliant work crossed racial barriers and won him both critical and popular success.

“With it all, I cannot help being overwhelmed by self-doubts. I hope there is something worthy in my writings and not merely the novelty of a black face associated with the power to rhyme that has attracted attention.”- Paul Laurence Dunbar

Famous Poets

Langston Hughes was an African-American poet, novelist, and playwright who became one of the foremost interpreters of racial relations in the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Hughes had one of the leading voices in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. His poems embraced radical politics, poverty, prejudice, violence, and a host of other socio-economic issues that chronicle the African-American experience. Hughes wrote children’s stories, non-fiction, and numerous works for the stage. Hughes published more than 35 books, and his influence is seen in the writings of authors from his generation to the present.

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."- Langston Hughes

Famous Writers

In the August 1887 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, a short story appeared written by African-American author from Cleveland, Ohio. Charles W. Chestnutt’s story “The Goophered Grapevine” was just one of the many innovative literary contributions from novels to poems to essays that Chestnutt would produce during his long career. The piece for the Atlantic Monthly was the first short story of Chestnutt’s to be published by a major literary magazine. Throughout the remainder of his career, Chestnutt developed complex and interesting African-American characters along with stories that explored the issues of race in America. The NAACP awarded Charles Chestnutt the Spingarn Award in 1928.

Famous Writers

Richard Wright is best remembered for his controversial 1940 novel, Native Son, and his 1945 autobiography, Black Boy. Throughout his career, Wright drew on a wide range of literary traditions, including protest writing and detective fiction, to craft unflinching portrayals of racism in American society. Wright's connections to stamps and the mail are deeper than most who have been honored on a U.S. postage stamp since he worked for the Chicago Post Office from 1927 to 1930 as a letter sorter.

Business Leaders & Inventors

Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867, Madam C.J. Walker became a beauty products pioneer and one of the nation's first female millionaires. In the early 1900s, using her husband's name (Charles Joseph Walker), she developed a very successful business manufacturing hair goods and preparations, and her company eventually became one of the country's largest businesses owned by an African-American. Walker also became one of the era's leading African-American philanthropists and political activists, strongly supporting education, charitable institutions, political rights, and economic opportunities for African-Americans and women.

Wilma Rudolph

Few people would have expected that a child who suffered from polio and wore leg braces for several years would one day be proclaimed "the world's fastest woman." But that is the story of Wilma Rudolph, who at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy, won three gold medals in sprint events (the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 4-x-100-meter relay events). Rudolph, who also won a bronze medal in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, and won several awards and was inducted into the Black Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. After retiring from competition, Rudolph worked as a teacher, track coach, and sports broadcaster. She also served in several government programs helping underprivileged youth. She also founded the Wilma Rudolph Foundation to promote community-based, youth-oriented athletic and academic programs. In her honor, the Women’s Sports Foundation annually presents the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award to a female athlete who exhibits fortitude, perseverance, self-sacrifice, and inspiration.

Professional Sports: Boxing

Known as the "Brown Bomber," Joseph Louis Barrow won the world heavyweight boxing title in 1937 and held it until he retired in 1949. He defended his title more than 20 times before he joined the Army in World War II, and defended it several more times after the war. Two of his most famous fights were against Max Schmeling- Louis lost in 1936 (his only loss as a professional before he retired), but he knocked out Schmeling in the first round in the rematch in 1938.

Professional Sports: Boxing

Sugar Ray Robinson a native of Ailey, Georgia became a professional boxer in 1940 at the age of nineteen. Throughout Robinson’s career which lasted until 1965, he garnered the World Welterweight and Middleweight championship titles several times. Over the course of his career Robinson competed in over 200 fights, winning 175 of them including 109 knockouts. Robinson’s incredible performance and record in professional boxing resonates to this day as many in the current boxing world consider him to be the greatest boxer to have ever lived.

African American Baseball Stars: Paige

Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige is considered the most dominating and crowd-pleasing pitcher to play in the Negro Leagues. He started his professional baseball career in 1926 and played for many teams over the years, and he helped the Kansas City Monarchs to four consecutive Negro American League pennants from 1939 to 1942 and again in 1946. Before professional baseball was integrated, he played many exhibition games against major league players and often astonished and stifled them with his wide assortment of pitches. In 1948, at the reported age of 42, Paige signed with the Cleveland Indians and had a 6-1 record while helping the team win the World Series. In addition to being the oldest rookie to play in the majors, he also became the oldest man to pitch in a major league game, returning in 1965 to pitch three scoreless innings for the Kansas City Athletics.

African American Baseball Stars: Gibson

Legendary baseball figure Josh Gibson was one of the greatest power hitters in Negro League baseball. He regularly hit home runs when he played for the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords. Gibson was never able to display his greatness in major league baseball; he died January 20, 1947, only a month after he turned 35 and a few months before Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in major league baseball. Gibson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. He was the second Negro League player, after Satchel Paige, to be so honored.

African American Baseball Stars: Robinson

Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier in 1947, had a 10-year all-star career, became the first African-American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and had his number 42 retired by Major League Baseball in 1997. More important than his accomplishments in baseball are his contributions to racial equality in the United States, of which his many baseball "firsts" are just one part. After his retirement from baseball in 1956, he became very active in the civil rights movement, working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and on several political campaigns to help break barriers for all people, not just athletes.

African American Baseball Stars: Campanella



The first African American catcher to play in Major League Baseball was Roy Campanella. Today Campanella is not as recognizable as his Brooklyn Dodgers teammate Jackie Robinson who had his debut in the spring of 1947, but his contributions to the Dodgers were essential for the team's successes in the 1950s. Campanella was selected as the National League's Most Valuable Player three times in 1951, 1953 and 1955. Jackie Robinson was only selected as the National League MVP once in 1949. In 1953, Campanella hit 40 home runs, a single season record for a catcher in Major League Baseball. This record would stand until 1996.

Roy Campanella along with Jackie Robinson and other early African American baseball players pioneered a path of excellence which shattered the color barrier forever. This allowed for the eventual opening up of every professional sport to persons of all races and backgrounds.

African American Baseball Stars: Clemente

Proud of his African-American and Hispanic roots, Roberto Clemente relied on his upbringing to weather incidents of racial prejudice that occurred early in his baseball career. He said, "I don't believe in color, I believe in people. My mother and father taught me never to hate... someone because of their color." He was known for his zeal and passion for his sport, his inclusive attitude, and his devotion to serving the poor and underprivileged. He was not just a great baseball player but a great humanitarian, too. He died tragically in an airplane crash while attempting to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on December 31, 1972.

Folklore: John Henry

John Henry is an African-American folk hero who symbolizes strength and determination. The stories about John Henry are not just "tall tales," for they are based on the life of a real person, a former slave working on the railroads after the Civil War, but time has blurred fact and fiction. In the stories, John Henry, a strong "steel-driving man," accepted the challenge of trying to outperform a steam-powered drill. Swinging a heavy hammer in each hand, he beat the machine but died soon after; some say from exhaustion, others say from a broken heart on realizing that machines would replace muscle and spirit.