BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Gross Galleries 7): Freedom Just Around the Corner

DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Gross Galleries 7): Freedom Just Around the Corner:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Description of Pictures: Freedom Just Around the Corner: Black America from Civil War to Civil Rights
February 12, 2015 – January 15, 2016
A chronicle of the African American experience told from the perspective of stamps and mail. Includes letters carried by enslaved Americans, mail to and from famous leaders of the civil rights movement, and a significant selection of original artwork for the USPS Black Heritage stamp series from the Postmaster General’s Collection.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FREEDM_150212_001.JPG: Freedom Just Around the Corner Black America from Civil War to Civil Rights The National Postal Museum's first exhibition devoted entirely to African American history, Freedom marks 150 years since the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery throughout the United States. It highlights letters carried by enslaved Americans, mail sent by and to leaders of the civil rights movement, and original artwork for numerous stamps issued by the United States Postal Service. Nearly one hundred items from NPM's collection are on display, augmented by outstanding pieces on loan from other institutions and private collections.
2. FREEDM_150212_013.JPG: 13¢ Harriet Tubman Die Proof, c. 1978
3. FREEDM_150212_019.JPG: 3 cent George Washington Carver large die proof, April 30, 1947
4. FREEDM_150212_023.JPG: 10¢ Salem Poor Concept Stamp Art by Neil Boyle, c. 1975 The U.S. bicentennial was the occasion for this stamp, part of a series that honored little-known figures of the American Revolution. Salem Poor was a slave who purchased his freedom and later participated in the battles at Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, and White Plains.
5. FREEDM_150212_028.JPG: 1978-Present Black Heritage Stamp Series U.S. postage stamps were in use for nearly a century before Booker T. Washington became the first African American to appear on one. A handful of additional black history-related designs appeared between 1940 and 1978, when the U.S. Postal Service introduced the Black Heritage series. Today the Black Heritage issues are the longest-running U.S. stamp series. The Black Heritage stamps reflect the progress, richness, and diversity of African American achievements. -- US Postal Service
6. FREEDM_150212_032.JPG: Segregation With the U.S. Army no longer suppressing the Klan and enforcing the political rights of freedmen, southern states introduced racial segregation and passed laws that made it difficult for black men to vote. Lynchings peaked between 1890 and 1910, and anti-lynching legislation became a perennial concern of new civil rights organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Throughout this period, the post office and the military were the nation's largest employers, and they reflected the racial problems of the larger society.
7. FREEDM_150212_037.JPG: Travelers' Green Book International Edition, 1966-67 edition Widespread discrimination and the prevalence of Jim Crow laws in the south made it difficult for African Americans to travel freely. Harlem, New York letter carrier Victor H. Green and his wife Alma published the Green Book from 1936 to 1966 to guide black travelers to hotels, restaurants, and other establishments that would serve them. Much of his information was supplied by fellow postal workers around the country.
8. FREEDM_150212_040.JPG: Following the Civil War, free African Americans established more than sixty all-black towns, mostly in the south and west. They settled together for protection and mutual assistance, and petitioned the government to establish post offices so they could communicate with family and conduct business with the outside world. Most of these historically black communities have since disappeared, and some are remembered only because they once had a post office.
9. FREEDM_150212_042.JPG: Nicodemus, Kansas opened a post office on September 12, 1877, the first all-black town to do so. Originally housed in a dugout, the Nicodemus post office later moved to the St. Francis Hotel owned by Postmaster Zachery Fletcher. The hotel's remains are shown in this 1983 National Park Service photograph; the post office was in the two-story, gabled portion on the right. Kendleton, Texas has the oldest still-operating post office of any historically black town in America. It opened on April 15, 1884 in a cotton processing facility near the railroad depot. The second post office, shown here, was also a generate store and gas station.
10. FREEDM_150212_043.JPG: During segregation the students at Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute were allowed into the town only Saturdays, limiting their access to the post office. Additionally, the Institute relied on thousands of dollars in donations, tuition, and fees received through the mail. In 1904, the Theodore Roosevelt administration granted Tuskegee Institute its own post office. One of the first post offices in Mound Bayou, Mississippi was located in a general store owned by the Montgomery family. The post office was later moved to this local bank. Isaiah T. Montgomery was the first postmaster of Mound Bayou. A self-made businessman, he founded the town by purchasing land from the local railroad.
11. FREEDM_150212_046.JPG: Segregated Rural Free Delivery saddlebag, c. 1896 Palmyra, Virginia became a Rural Free Delivery post office on October 22, 1896, one of the first in the nation to deliver mail to farm families. This mailbag with separate compartments for "white" and "colored" mail was not required by federal policy but was procured by the carrier to satisfy either his own preferences or those of his customers.
12. FREEDM_150212_051.JPG: "First 'Jim Crow' PO in US", Dallas Express, July 19, 1919
13. FREEDM_150212_061.JPG: Mrs. Frazer Baker and Children, c. 1899 Account of the Frazer B. Baker lynching trial, 1899 President William McKinley appointed hundreds of African American postmasters, including Frazer B. Baker of Lake City, South Carolina. Local whites burned the post office to force Baker to resign; when he did not, they burned his house and shot his family as they escaped. Because Baker was a U.S. government employee, his murder led to a federal trial. None of the accused were convicted, but the incident brought national attention to the lynching problem.
14. FREEDM_150212_065.JPG: Military Segregation Let the black man get upon his person the brass letters U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on earth or under the earth which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the United States. -- Frederick Douglass, Should the Negro Enlist in the Union Army?, 1863
15. FREEDM_150212_069.JPG: Captain Dovey Johnson Roundtree tunic and insignia, c. 1943 One of the first African American women officers in the Women's Army Corps during World War II, Roundtree was a tireless recruiter. The WACs included the 6888th Postal Battalion, an all-black, all female unit deployed to England and France to clear a backlog of undelivered military mail addressed to soldiers at the front.
16. FREEDM_150212_074.JPG: Marine 3rd Ammunition Company cover, July 13, 1945 One of the first all-black Marine units, the 3rd Ammunition Company's meritorious performance in the 1944 Battle of Saipan earned them a Presidential Unit Citation and won praise from senior white commanders, softening opposition to African Americans in the military.
17. FREEDM_150212_082.JPG: The Crisis magazine Editor-in-Chief cover, September 28, 1944 African American soldiers in the field continued to receive, read, and correspond with black publications such as the NAACP's The Crisis magazine. The sender of this letter, Private First Class Sam Wallace, Jr. of Kansas, was killed in action in the final months of the war.
18. FREEDM_150212_083.JPG: 24th Infantry Regiment cover, c 1947 A segregated regiment dating back to the days of the Buffalo Soldiers, the 24th Infantry accepted the surrender of Japanese forces on Aka and Tokashiki islands nearly six weeks before Japan's general surrender on September 2, 1945.
19. FREEDM_150212_095.JPG: V-Mail microfilm strip, c. 1944 The U.S. military's V-Mail (short for Victory Mail) system involved photographing letters to military personnel, then sending the microfilmed negatives to be developed and delivered in the field. This V-Mail microfilm strip contains a letter from a Howard University student to her husband in the navy.
20. FREEDM_150212_098.JPG: Tuskegee aviation cadet Herbert O. Reid cover, April 14, 1942 The idea of an entirely African American squadron in the Army Air Corps seemed far-fetched at a time when there were only a handful of black pilots in the entire country. However, Tuskegee Institute had operated a federally-funded training program for black pilots since 1939, so when just such a squadron was authorized by the War Department it was based there. Lieutenant Colonel Noel F. Parrish, the unit's third white commander, was directly responsible for ensuring the Tuskegee Airmen's many successes. Noel F. Parrish "somewhere in Alabama" cover, July 11, 1943
21. FREEDM_150212_103.JPG: 1867-1972 Civil Rights Movement The first generation of civil rights leaders were born in slavery or were the children of slaves. They emphasized education and self-reliance as the path to equality, founding local and national organizations to help fellow black Americans become educated, build businesses, and establish social networks. The institutions they created trained and nurtured later generations of activist leaders.
22. FREEDM_150212_105.JPG: Legacies of the Black Heritage Stamp Series Due in part to the success of the Black Heritage series, since the 1980s there has been a substantial increase in the number of African American subjects included in other long-running series.
23. FREEDM_150212_116.JPG: Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him. -- Booker T. Washington
24. FREEDM_150212_118.JPG: Tuskegee Institute cover to Nigeria February 19, 1913
25. FREEDM_150212_126.JPG: Mary McLeod Bethune to Walter White cover, October 17, 1928 A notation on this envelope indicates that it contained a letter from Mary McLeod Bethune concerning the deadly 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane, in which 75% of those killed were poor black farmers in the lowlands surrounding Lake Okeechobee. Bethune founded Bethune-Cookman College at Daytona Beach, Florida in 1904.
26. FREEDM_150212_128.JPG: The Call black newspaper cover, February 17, 1944 In addition to national news items, Kansas City's The Call focused on printing social information that the city's white-owned newspapers declined to print, such as marriages, obituaries, and graduation announcements. NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins began his career as a reporter for The Call.
27. FREEDM_150212_143.JPG: 1619-1865 Slave-Carried Mail Before the introduction of home mail delivery, slaves often carried letters to and from the post office. Slave-carried mail is usually identified by a notation -- called an endorsement -- that also served as a travel pass. These mail messengers could be an important source of news if they overheard discussions during their travels. "News was usually gotten from the colored man who was sent to the post-office for the mail. In our case the post-office was about three miles from the plantation and the mail came once or twice a week." -- Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery, 1901
28. FREEDM_150212_145.JPG: 1861-1865 Civil War The debate over slavery turned violent during the 1850s. Pro- and anti-slavery settlers in the Kansas Territory fought a year-long running battle known as "Bleeding Kansas." An abortive attempt at a slave rebellion in Virginia, followed closely by Abraham Lincoln's election as president in 1860, made the Civil War inevitable. Although roughly 10% of Union forces were African American, they served in segregated units led by white officers.
29. FREEDM_150212_149.JPG: William H. Carney on his postal route, c. 1887 William Harvey Carney, born a slave in Virginia in 1840, volunteered for the celebrated, all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Shot twice while rescuing the American flag during an attack on Battery Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina, he later received the Medal of Honor. After the war, he worked as a letter carrier in the New Bedford, Massachusetts post office for more than thirty years.
30. FREEDM_150212_152.JPG: William H. Carney Medal of Honor, 1900
31. FREEDM_150212_167.JPG: Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry at Washington, D.C.'s Fort Lincoln, c. 1862-1865
32. FREEDM_150212_183.JPG: Nothing suits me better than to have command of Darkey Troops... It is a fact that colored Troops learn faster than white Troops.
33. FREEDM_150212_193.JPG: Black America from Civil War to Civil Rights
34. FREEDM_150212_211.JPG: ... The day you make a soldier of them is the beginning of the end ... -- Confederate Major General Howell Cobb
35. FREEDM_150212_213.JPG: The Business of Slavery American slavery was big business. On the eve of the Civil War, four million slaves produced cash crops -- cotton, tobacco, and rice -- that were exported at high prices. In addition to the crops they raised, slaves themselves were commodities to be bought, sold, bred, and borrowed against. A variety of service industries supported the slave economy including dealers, insurance companies, and shippers. The federal government also derived revenue from taxes on the sale of slaves and the export of slave-grown products
36. FREEDM_150212_214.JPG: Cover from Joseph Bryan, May 2, 1860 Joseph Bryan conducted one of the largest slave auctions in U.S. history. More than 400 men, women and children were sold over two days in 1859, an event remembered in Georgia folklore as "the weeping time."
37. FREEDM_150212_221.JPG: Davis, Deupree and Company letter, October 13, 1860 Our market is fair at this time several here who wish to buy some good negroes... Richmond, Virginia was the center of the domestic slave trade on the eve of the Civil War. Despite the large volume of mail that must have been sent by slave dealers, just a few examples survive today.
38. FREEDM_150212_224.JPG: In 1862, the federal government instituted a series of domestic taxes to fund the Civil War. Slavery remained legal in six Union states -- Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and West Virginia -- and the sale of slaves in these states was taxable. These documents bear federally-issued revenue stamps as evidence that the tax was paid and are poignant reminders of a time when people were property.
39. FREEDM_150212_226.JPG: First Federal Issue Revenue Stamps on Slave Mortgage Document, March 3, 1863 Kentucky slaveowner Margaret Jones secured a loan of $600 by mortgaging her "negro man, named George, of copper color and aged about forty five years." Under the terms, George would be deeded back to Jones if the loan was paid off in six months.
40. FREEDM_150212_233.JPG: First Federal Issue revenue stamps on promissory note, April 13, 1863 This document records William L. Maddy's promise to pay $2000 for a "lot of Negroes" from the estate of a deceased slaveowner. The unnamed state where the sale took place was probably Kentucky.
41. FREEDM_150212_241.JPG: First Federal Issue revenue stamps on slave sale document, October 1, 1863 A total of six cents tax was due on $305 paid for a "negro boy Charles" at a court-ordered auction in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
42. FREEDM_150212_250.JPG: 1863-1877 Reconstruction Reconstruction refers to the process of reorganizing the southern states and readmitting them to the Union. It generally began once U.S. forces occupied a Confederate territory, and involved freeing local slaves and extending political rights to them. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan foreshadowed the difficulties that African Americans would face once the last Federal forces withdrew from the south in 1877, leaving blacks vulnerable to segregationist "Jim Crow" laws.
43. FREEDM_150212_252.JPG: Ku Klux Klan hood and mask, c. 1990 Former slaves hoping to enjoy newfound freedom were soon confronted by whites trying to maintain their supremacy. The KKK began as a society of Confederate veterans that used terrorism to intimidate freedmen. Its most recognizable symbol -- the pointed hood and mask -- did not become common until the 1920s, however.
44. FREEDM_150212_281.JPG: 1/2 lb. tobacco taxpaid revenue die essay, 1868
45. FREEDM_150212_289.JPG: Reconstruction: The Ku Klux Klan Most U.S. postmasters were not issued standard devices for canceling stamps until the 1890s. Prior to that, they were purchased from vendors or homemade. A number of hand-carved KKK-themed cancels were used by the post office at Union Mills, Pennsylvania in 1870. They serve as a reminder that the Klan had adherents in the north as well as the south.
46. FREEDM_150212_317.JPG: "Full Freedom by 1963" Cover, January 7, 1957 The slogan on this NAACP envelope refers to the organization's stated goal of equality for African Americans by the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The centennial was also the occasion of the March on Washington.
47. FREEDM_150212_319.JPG: The Rise of Direct Action During the 1950s, legal and political challenges to segregation were replaced by non-violent "direct action" tactics such as boycotts, sit-ins, and marches. This was due in part to the influence of World War II veterans, who had fought for freedom abroad and were no longer willing to accept less at home. The largest and most famous of these demonstrations was the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the setting for Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech.
48. FREEDM_150212_334.JPG: "Mrs. Medgar Evers" cover, June 14, 1963
49. FREEDM_150212_342.JPG: White House cover to A. Philip Randolph, December 3, 1962 Labor leader A. Philip Randolph first proposed a mass protest in Washington, D.C. during 1941. Although it never materialized, he participated in planning for the August 1963 March on Washington. This envelope dates from a period when the Kennedy administration was discouraging the march's organizers from going through with it.
50. FREEDM_150212_357.JPG: Ladies' Liberia Association of Cincinnati pamphlet, 1840 This sixteen-page circular announcing the formation of the Ladies' Liberia Association of Cincinnati was sent through the mail at the regular letter rate of twenty-five cents.
51. FREEDM_150212_376.JPG: "Great Meeting in Fanueil Hall" circular, February 5, 1842 Boston abolitionists met in 1842 and called on Congress to end slavery in Washington, DC. This report of the meeting was mailed free to a member of Congress with an affixed seal that reads: "Are you a FREEMAN... Do as you would be done by. Proclaim liberty to the captives." Slavery remained remained legal in the District until 1862.
52. FREEDM_150212_381.JPG: 5¢ Franklin on Free Soil Party circular, September 1848 The Free Soil Party was a third party in the presidential election of 1848, when Martin Van Buren was their candidate. Their sole platform was preventing the spread of slavery into the new territories acquired during the Mexican-American War. The first U.S. postage stamp, issued in 1847, was used to send their political circular through the mail.
53. FREEDM_150212_384.JPG: Early London Edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852
54. FREEDM_150212_390.JPG: Uncle Tom's Cabin illustrated anti-slavery cover, March 28, 1853 Less than a year after its publication in the United States, Uncle Tom's Cabin sold more than one million copies in Great Britain. Although modern critics point out the book's use of racially stereotyped characters, in its day it was regarded as a powerful piece of anti-slavery propaganda. Scenes from the novel decorate the reverse of this British anti-slavery cover published by James Valentine of Dundee, Scotland. The scenes, clockwise from top flap: Uncle Tom is sold away from Aunt Chloe and his children because of his owner's bankruptcy. The overseers Sambo and Quimbo flog Uncle Tom. Simon Legree whips Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom reads his Bible atop cotton bales on a Mississippi River steamboat. Pursued by slave catchers, Eliza escapes north with her five year old son Harry. Emmeline is sold away from her grieving mother, Susan.
55. FREEDM_150212_399.JPG: Uncle Tom's Cabin illustrated anti-slavery cover, March 28, 1853 Less than a year after its publication in the United States, Uncle Tom's Cabin sold more than one million copies in Great Britain. Although modern critics point out the book's use of racially stereotyped characters, in its day it was regarded as a powerful piece of anti-slavery propaganda. Scenes from the novel decorate the reverse of this British anti-slavery cover published by James Valentine of Dundee, Scotland. The scenes, clockwise from top flap: Uncle Tom is sold away from Aunt Chloe and his children because of his owner's bankruptcy. The overseers Sambo and Quimbo flog Uncle Tom. Simon Legree whips Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom reads his Bible atop cotton bales on a Mississippi River steamboat. Pursued by slave catchers, Eliza escapes north with her five year old son Harry. Emmeline is sold away from her grieving mother, Susan.
56. FREEDM_150212_414.JPG: We must strive for the rights which the world accords to men. -- W.E.B. Du Bois
57. FREEDM_150212_419.JPG: Blackdom, New Mexico post office cash book, c. 1913 Faced with segregation and discrimination in the east, many African Americans chose to establish their own towns in the west. Some, like Blackdom, grew large enough to support post offices that offered money orders and postal savings accounts, functioning as de facto banks. Cash books from these post offices contain the community's economic history.
58. FREEDM_150212_421.JPG: The Postal Alliance, November 1919 Federal employment was desegregated during Reconstruction. In 1913, however, President Woodrow Wilson resegregated the government. An early flash point was the Railway Mail Service (RMS), were close quarters and hazardous working conditions exacerbated racial tensions. Black RMS clerks formed the National Association of Postal Employees and published a journal, The Postal Alliance, to address their concerns.
59. FREEDM_150213_018.JPG: Abolition: Abolition and the Mail Reformers began working for the abolition of slavery in the earliest days of the American republic. By 1804 they had succeeded in the northern states and turned all their efforts to attacking slavery in the south and opposing its spread in the west. Postage rates decreased from the 1830s through the 1850s, allowing abolitionists to distribute literature cheaply via the post office. Many southerners regarded these mail campaigns as an attack, aided and abetted by the federal government. The New Method of Sorting the Mail, As Practiced by Southern Slave-Holders, 1835 The Charleston, South Carolina post office was raided by a pro-slavery mob in July 1835. "U.S.M." on the mail bag at lower left stands for U.S. Mail, and the mob is burning bundles of abolitionist newspapers -- with the help of the city postmaster. Liberia While abolitionists wanted an immediate and unconditional end to slavery, the American Colonization Society (ACS) supported gradual emancipation combined with resettling freed slaves in Africa. This appealed to slave owners who feared rebellions; white farmers and laborers worried that free black labor would depress wages; religious leaders who wanted to missionize Africa; and those who believed freed slaves would never be treated fairly in America. The ACS founded the West African colony of Liberia in 1822 and resettled more than 13,000 freed American slaves there.
60. FREEDM_150213_022.JPG: Liberia While abolitionists wanted an immediate and unconditional end to slavery, the American Colonization Society (ACS) supported gradual emancipation combined with resettling freed slaves in Africa. This appealed to slave owners who feared rebellions; white farmers and laborers worried that free black labor would depress wages; religious leaders who wanted to missionize Africa; and those who believed freed slaves would never be treated fairly in America. The ACS founded the West African colony of Liberia in 1822 and resettled more than 13,000 freed American slaves there.
61. FREEDM_150213_031.JPG: ... The day you make a soldier of them is the beginning of the end ... -- Confederate Major General Howell Cobb
62. FREEDM_150213_042.JPG: Postal Inspection Service investigation card, 1924 On July 8, 1924, Ku Klux Klan members burned a cross to terrorize a camp for black Boy Scouts outside Philadelphia. U.S. Postal Inspectors investigated reports that an assistant postmaster and a clerk from the Ardmore, Pennsylvania post office were involved.
63. FREEDM_150213_049.JPG: Blackdom, New Mexico post office, c 1913
64. FREEDM_150213_053.JPG: Segregated Rural Free Delivery saddlebag, c. 1896 Palmyra, Virginia became a Rural Free Delivery post office on October 22, 1896, one of the first in the nation to deliver mail to farm families. This mailbag with separate compartments for "white" and "colored" mail was not required by federal policy but was procured by the carrier to satisfy either his own preferences or those of his customers.
65. FREEDM_150213_062.JPG: Beyond the Black Heritage Series
66. FREEDM_150213_065.JPG: 70¢ Charles Alfred Anderson approved stamp art by Sterling Hundley, c. 2014 ‘Chief' Anderson was a self-taught Pennsylvania pilot who served as an instructor at the Tuskegee Army Air Field. His nickname stemmed from his title -- Chief Civilian Flight Instructor. His students included two future African American four-star generals: Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. and Daniel "Chappie" James, Sr.
67. FREEDM_150213_072.JPG: Cover from "Walter White/War Correspondent," March 11, 1945 Longtime NAACP Executive Secretary Walter F. White served as a war correspondent for several publications, including the New York Post. He reported on the contributions of black military personnel and the discrimination they faced in the service. His book A Rising Wind figured in President Harry S Truman's 1948 decision to desegregate the military.
68. FREEDM_150213_094.JPG: 10¢ Paul Laurence Dunbar Imperforate Pair, 1975 Novelist, playwright, and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first black writers to be accepted by the white literary establishment. He published pieces in Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Weekly, and Saturday Evening Post as well as writing Dahomey, the first African American Broadway musical.
69. FREEDM_150213_104.JPG: 3¢ George Washington Carver Block of Four, 1948 The Tuskegee Institute, which Booker T. Washington founded and where George Washington Carver taught for nearly a half-century, offered a practical education to future teachers, farmers, and industrial workers.
70. FREEDM_150213_108.JPG: 10¢ Booker T. Washington, 1940
71. FREEDM_150213_110.JPG: James Weldon Johnson
72. FREEDM_150213_120.JPG: 33¢ Martin Luther King, Jr. approved stamp art by Keith Birdsong, c. 1999 Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech was commemorated in the Postal Service's Celebrate the Century stamp series issued at the end of the twentieth century. A trace of brightness on the horizon represents hope, while King wears the March's official badge.
73. FREEDM_150213_128.JPG: 42¢ Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer, 2009 The March on Washington occurred between two infamous civil rights crimes.NAACP leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi two months before the March; less than a month afterward, four young girls died in a bombing Birmingham, Alabama's 16th Street Baptist Church. This cover contained a letter of condolence to Myrlie Evers-Williams, who later became chairman of the NAACP.
74. FREEDM_150213_139.JPG: Political Pins, c 1960s-1970s The images and slogans on these lapel pins symbolize the "Black Power" movement that gained popularity in the years after the March on Washington. It went beyond the equality called for by the mainstream civil rights movement, instead emphasizing a sense of racial pride.
75. FREEDM_150213_140.JPG: The Black Panther newspaper, August 15, 1970 In the face of continuing atrocities, some groups rejected the non-violent approach of the NAACP and Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference in factor of Black Power ideologies. Prominent examples included the Nation of Islam, headed by Malcolm X; the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, which changed its name from Non-Violent to National in 1969; and the Black Panther Party.
76. FREEDM_150213_152.JPG: 15¢ Martin Luther King, Jr. Approved Stamp Art by Jerry Pinkney, c. 1979 Illustrator Jerry Pinkney's designs for the first Black Heritage stamps set the tone for the series and were emulated by later illustrators Thomas Blackshear II and Higgins Bond. They feature a central portrait surrounded by symbolic vignettes of the subject's primary accomplishments.
77. FREEDM_150213_161.JPG: Black Heritage Stamp Series: Controversies The Black Heritage series has occasionally drawn criticism, especially when it has depicted individuals who espoused controversial political ideologies.
78. FREEDM_150213_163.JPG: 29¢ W. E. B. Du Bois approved stamp art by Higgins Bond, c. 1992 Targeted during the McCarthy era for his socialist views, W. E. B. Du Bois accepted Ghanaian citizenship and formally joined the Communist Party at the age of 93. Some critics felt that this should have prevented his appearance on a U.S. stamp.
79. FREEDM_150213_173.JPG: 33¢ Malcolm X concept stamp art by Chris Calle, c. 1999 Criticism of the 1999 Black Heritage stamp honoring Malcom X centered on his early association with the Nation of Islam and his controversial view that blacks should advance civil rights "by any means necessary," including violence.
80. FREEDM_150213_179.JPG: 37¢ Paul Robeson concept stamp art by Albert Slark, c. 2004 Actor and singer Paul Robeson was attracted to communism in the 1930s, when many saw the Soviet Union as the only major world power opposed to Hitler's rise in Germany. He remained an outspoken supporter of Josef Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Soviet communism until his death.
81. FREEDM_150213_192.JPG: 22¢ Jean Baptiste Point du Sable approved stamp art by Thomas Blackshear II, c. 1987 There are no extant portraits of Chicago pioneer du Sable or his cabin; other artists' conceptions inspired Blackshear's haunting portrait.
82. FREEDM_150213_197.JPG: 15¢ Benjamin Banneker approved stamp art by Jerry Pinkney, c. 1980 The only known image of the scientist and surveyor Benjamin Banneker is a very crude woodcut from the cover of his 1795 Almanac. Nevertheless, the illustrator delivered a sensitive and believable portrait for this stamp.
83. FREEDM_150213_208.JPG: 37¢ Marian Anderson approved stamp art by Albert Slark, c. 2005 Canadian-born artist Albert Slark created this full-color oil portrait of Marian Anderson from a circa 1934 black-and-white photograph. Easily one of the most beautiful designs in the Black Heritage series, it won numerous awards and was exhibited at the Society of Illustrators 48th Annual Exhibition in New York City.
84. FREEDM_150213_213.JPG: 22¢ Duke Ellington approved stamp art by Jim Sharpe, c. 1986 Performing Arts Series The most prolific jazz composer ever, Edward ‘Duke' Ellington and his orchestra toured the U.S. for nearly fifty years and also popularized the genre in Europe.
85. FREEDM_150213_225.JPG: 29¢ Nat ‘King' Cole approved stamp art by C. F. Payne, c. 1994 Legends of American Music Series Known for his melodic baritone voice, Cole was the first African American entertainer to have his own television variety show.
86. FREEDM_150213_231.JPG: 37¢ Zora Neale Hurston approved stamp art by Drew Struzan, c. 2003 Literary Arts Series A noted folklorist, novelist and anthropologist, Hurston is best known for her 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
87. FREEDM_150213_239.JPG: 23¢ Wilma Rudolph approved stamp art by Mark Summers, c. 2004 Distinguished Americans Series Rudolph won three gold medals in track at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, despite having contracted infantile paralysis (polio) at the age of four.
88. FREEDM_150213_250.JPG: 22¢ Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson approved stamp art by Dennis Lyall, c. 1986 Arctic Explorers Series A former sharecropper from Maryland, Matthew Henson participated as a navigator and translator in six expeditions to the North Pole.
89. FREEDM_150213_279.JPG: 5¢ Emancipation Proclamation concept stamp art by Georg Olden, c. 1963 This bold, allegorical commemorative for the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation was the first U.S. postage stamp designed by an African American. A marginal notation indicates that the design was approved by President Kennedy.
90. FREEDM_150213_285.JPG: 25¢ Frederick Douglass Approved Stamp Art by Walter DuBois Richards, c. 1967 The Douglass stamp marked the first time an African American was included in a "regular" stamp series; that is, one meant for everyday postal use. The dramatic portrait was based on a photograph approved by Douglass's descendants.
91. FREEDM_150213_295.JPG: 10 cent Booker T. Washington, 1940 Two distinguished educators associated with Alabama's Tuskegee Institute were the first African Americans to appear on US stamps. Both stamps were commemoratives, printed in relatively small numbers and available for a short period of time.
92. FREEDM_150213_305.JPG: Military Segregation Let the black man get upon his person the brass letters U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on earth or under the earth which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the United States. -- Frederick Douglass, Should the Negro Enlist in the Union Army?, 1863
93. FREEDM_150213_308.JPG: Ida B. Wells Approved Stamp Art by Thomas Blackshear II, c. 1990 Born a slave in Mississippi during the Civil War, Ida B. Wells became a journalist and lecturer who brought worldwide attention to race issues in the United States. She undertook the first systematic, statistical study that exposed the lynching problem.
94. FREEDM_150213_314.JPG: The Struggle Against Lynching
95. FREEDM_150213_317.JPG: House of Representatives anti-lynching cover, September 29, 1936 Anti-lynching legislation was a perennial cause of the NAACP, but it never passed Congress. This cover contained a Congressional Record extract concerning a bill introduced into the House of Representatives during the Great Depression, when economic conditions contributed to a surge in lynchings.
96. FREEDM_150213_324.JPG: Home Missions Council to Ruby Hurley Cover, September 18, 1951
97. FREEDM_150213_331.JPG: 42¢ Ella Baker and Ruby Hurley, 2009 Ruby Hurley opened the NAACP's first permanent office in Alabama in 1951. She investigated the murders of several African Americans, including fifteen-year-old Emmet Till, before turning her attention to the desegregation of public universities.
98. FREEDM_150213_342.JPG: Thurgood Marshall to Charles Hamilton Houston Cover, September 23, 1935
99. FREEDM_150213_347.JPG: 42¢ Charles Hamilton Houston and Walter White, 2009 Charles Hamilton Houston founded the NAACP's legal department in 1935. For the next fifteen years he challenged segregation through the courts and mentored his successor, the future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
100. FREEDM_150213_352.JPG: National Negro Business League Cover, July 24, 1914 Organized in 1900 by Booker T. Washington, the National Negro Business League encouraged its members to cater to black consumers and advertise in black magazines and newspapers.
101. FREEDM_150213_359.JPG: The Crisis Business Reply Envelope, May 21, 1948 The NAACP's membership, fundraising and publishing efforts made extensive use of business reply envelopes, which allowed people to send membership and subscription checks without paying postage.
102. FREEDM_150213_365.JPG: NAACP Business Reply Envelope, September 28, 1957
103. FREEDM_150213_369.JPG: Scottsboro Defense Committee cover, October 27, 1937 The "Scottsboro Boys" were nine black teenagers from Alabama falsely convicted of raping two white teenage girls in 1931. The convictions were overturned by the Supreme Court and sent back to Alabama for retrial. The NAACP cooperated with the Scottsboro Defense Committee to raise money to pay for the Scottsboro Boys' defense, but five of them were reconvicted. All were eventually paroled or pardoned.
104. FREEDM_150213_375.JPG: James M. Priest daguerreotype portrait by Augustus Washington, c. 1856-1860
105. FREEDM_150213_378.JPG: Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions stampless folded letter, August 5, 1846 "...They are all fond of the name of Harrison -- that of their first owners in Virginia, for whom…they cherish a tender regard. For this reason they desire to retain that name. Our missionary therefore will henceforth be known as Ellis Harrison…" -- Reverend Charles A. Stillman, a minister in Alabama, reports in his letter that local colonizationists have purchased a slave family's freedom for $2500 in order to send them to Liberia as missionaries.
106. FREEDM_150213_380.JPG: The US and Great Britain prohibited the importation of slaves in 1807. Both nations established Africa Squadrons -- naval detachments to intercept slave trading ships off the West African coast. Slaves found on the captured vessels were freed, usually in Liberia. Mail to and from ships of the Africa Squadron is quite scarce. USS Portsmouth off Cape Verde, January 7, 1849 Portsmouth captured three slave ships during two cruises. Africa Squadron patrols became increasingly ineffective as slave traders used lighter, faster clipper ships to outrun warships.
107. FREEDM_150213_384.JPG: Cover from USS Portsmouth off Cape Verde, January 7, 1849 The U.S. and Great Britain prohibited the importation of slaves in 1807. Both nations established Africa Squadrons -- naval detachments to intercept slave trading ships off the West African coast. Slaves found on the captured vessels were freed, usually in Liberia. Mail to and from ships of the Africa Squadron is quite scarce.
108. FREEDM_150213_385.JPG: Cover to USS Mohican off Angola, December 20, 1860 Mohican's only capture was the slave ship Erie, carrying almost 900 Africans. The thirty-three cents postage on this letter paid five cents domestic U.S. postage, the sixteen cents transatlantic ship rate, and twelve cents (equal to six pence) British Empire postage.
109. FREEDM_150213_391.JPG: 3¢ Landing of the First Colonists, Liberia, 1949 Signed by their designer, the noted illustrator Arthur Szyk, these stamps romanticize the arrival of the first African Americans at Liberia in 1821. Most of the 164 emigrants on board the ship Nautilus (visible in the background) were from North Carolina and were under eighteen years old. Within a year, 25% died from malaria.
110. FREEDM_150213_394.JPG: Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions stampless folded letter, August 5, 1846 "They are all fond of the name of Harrison -- that of their first owners in Virginia, for whom…they cherish a tender regard. For this reason they desire to retain that name. Our missionary therefore will henceforth be known as Ellis Harrison…" -- Reverend Charles A. Stillman, a minister in Alabama, reports in his letter that local colonizationists have purchased a slave family's freedom for $2500 in order to send them to Liberia as missionaries.
111. FREEDM_150213_412.JPG: 2 cent Franklin revenue stamped bank check, May 3, 1873
112. FREEDM_150213_416.JPG: 1/2 lb., 3 lb., and 5 lb. tobacco taxpaid stamps, 1868 Long before famous African Americans were celebrated on postage stamps, poor black sharecroppers appeared on a series of revenue stamps issued to collect the tax on one of their major crops -- tobacco. Similar images appeared on banknotes and checks of the period.
113. FREEDM_150213_428.JPG: Northwestern Freedman's Aid Commission cover, c 1863 Near the end of the Civil War, private freedmen's aid societies attempted to help former slaves adjust to freedom. The Northwestern Freedmen's Aid Commission of Chicago encouraged Midwestern farmers to take in freed black families. This envelope was sent from Helena, Arkansas sometime after its capture by Union forces on July 4, 1863.
114. FREEDM_150213_433.JPG: Freedmen's Bureau cover, c. 1865-1872 Private charity could only partially meet former slaves' needs, which ranged from food and clothing to employment and education. Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865 with Major General Oliver O. Howard as its commissioner. A Medal of Honor recipient, he later served as president of Howard University. His signature indicated that no postage was due.
115. FREEDM_150213_440.JPG: First Federal Issue revenue stamp on slave girl photograph, c. 1864 The National Freedmen's Relief Association sold a series of slave photographs to raise money for educational projects in occupied New Orleans. They favored images of obviously mixed-race children, which appealed to a white audience. Photographs were taxed according to their retail value, and a government revenue stamp is found on the reverse.
116. FREEDM_150213_445.JPG: Baltimore Association cover, c. 1865 Addressee Rebecca Primus was an African American teacher from Connecticut brought south by the "Baltimore Association for the Moral and Education Improvement of the Colored People" to open a school for freed blacks in eastern Maryland.
117. FREEDM_150213_451.JPG: Buffalo Soldiers cover, October 5, 1884 A number of African American veterans chose to remain in the army after the Civil War. They were organized into four segregated regiments known collectively as the "Buffalo Soldiers." Colonel Benjamin Grierson, the white commander of the 10th US Cavalry Regiment, sent this letter to his wife from the regiment's headquarters at Fort Davis, Texas.
118. FREEDM_150213_459.JPG: First Federal Issue revenue stamps on sharecropping contract, March 6, 1868 Southern landowners no longer owned slaves, and most freedmen owned no land. This dilemma resulted in the sharecropping system, in which free blacks (and many poor whites) farmed someone else's land in return for one-quarter to two-thirds of the crop, depending on how much the landowner was obligated to provide for them.
119. FREEDM_150213_470.JPG: "Kleagle Mask" KKK postal cancel, Union Mills, Pennsylvania, c. 1870 This cancel depicts an early style of homemade KKK mask. Stamp collectors refer to it as a kleagle mask after the title given to Klan recruiters, but that word was unknown in the 1870s.
120. FREEDM_150213_473.JPG: Watertown, New York Ku Klux Klan, c. 1870
121. FREEDM_150213_476.JPG: "Skull and Crossbones" KKK postal cancel, Union Mills, Pennsylvania, c. 1870 The skull and crossbones was one of the earliest symbols adopted by the Klan.
122. FREEDM_150213_482.JPG: Mississippi Ku Klux, Harper's Weekly, January 27, 1872
123. FREEDM_150213_490.JPG: "Horse in Hat" KKK postal cancel, Union Mills, Pennsylvvania, c 1870 This horse cancel, which comes from the same post office as the previous two examples, may refer to the Klan's torchlit midnight rides on horseback, or else a method of lynching that involved seating the noosed victim on a horse or donkey and then chasing the animal away.
124. FREEDM_150213_497.JPG: A Prospective Scene in the City of Oaks, Independent Monitor (Tuscaloosa, Alabama) 1868
125. FREEDM_150213_507.JPG: Ku Klux Klan hood and mask, c. 1990 Former slaves hoping to enjoy newfound freedom were soon confronted by whites trying to maintain their supremacy. The KKK began as a society of Confederate veterans that used terrorism to intimidate freedmen. Its most recognizable symbol -- the pointed hood and mask -- did not become common until the 1920s, however.
126. FREEDM_150213_511.JPG: Reconstruction: The Ku Klux Klan Most U.S. postmasters were not issued standard devices for canceling stamps until the 1890s. Prior to that, they were purchased from vendors or homemade. A number of hand-carved KKK-themed cancels were used by the post office at Union Mills, Pennsylvania in 1870. They serve as a reminder that the Klan had adherents in the north as well as the south.
127. FREEDM_150213_514.JPG: Beardless Lincoln campaign cover, c. 1861 Slavery Sectional, Freedom National -- an abolitionist slogan coined by U.S. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts -- here endorses Abraham Lincoln's 1860 presidential candidacy. The sentiment proved prophetic; Lincoln's election without the support of a single southern state led to the secession of the Confederate States of America and the Civil War.
128. FREEDM_150213_520.JPG: Captain John Brown cover, November 29, 1859 John Brown was a veteran of Bleeding Kansas who organized an 1859 attack on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in hopes of inciting a Virginia slave rebellion. His capture, trial, and execution became a cause célèbre that brought pro- and anti-slavery arguments to a fever pitch. During his final month in jail at Charlestown, Virginia, Brown was allowed to send and receive mail.
129. FREEDM_150213_526.JPG: 121st U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment cover and letter, December 21, 1864 Nothing suits me better than to have command of Darkey Troops... It is a fact that colored Troops learn faster than white Troops. The 121st consisted almost entirely of black troops raised in Kentucky, where one of the regiment's white officers mailed this letter shortly before a skirmish with Confederate soldiers.
130. FREEDM_150213_532.JPG: Nothing suits me better than to have command of Darkey Troops... It is a fact that colored Troops learn faster than white Troops.
131. FREEDM_150213_537.JPG: 121st U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment cover and letter, December 21, 1864
132. FREEDM_150213_547.JPG: Confederate Office Enrollment of Slaves cover, c. 1864 You cannot make soldiers of slaves, or slaves of soldiers. The day you make a soldier of them is the beginning of the end... then our whole theory of slavery is wrong. -- Confederate Major General Howell Cobb, 1865 Robert E. Lee ordered conscription of slaves in 1864 to bolster his faltering Confederate army. General Howell Cobb, well-known for his opposition to enlisting slaves, was placed in charge of doing just that in Georgia. This letter to Cobb was hand-carried by a Confederate officer rather than mailed presumably because it contained $936, a small fortune in the war's waning days.
133. FREEDM_150213_552.JPG: First Federal Issue revenue stamps on deed of emancipation, May 9, 1864 Seventeen-year-old Maryland slave William H. Jones enlisted in the 19th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops on December 18, 1863. His owner later filed emancipation papers, possibly to apply for federal compensation. Wounded during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, Jones was discharged and returned to Maryland.
134. FREEDM_150213_561.JPG: "Come back here you black rascal" illustrated cover, c 1861 Early in the Civil War, Union General Benjamin Butler decreed that escaped slaves who reached his station at Fort Monroe would be considered "contraband" and not returned to their owners. Although the idea of black troops is caricatured by these envelopes, nearly 200,000 black men served in the Union forces.
135. FREEDM_150213_564.JPG: Runaway slaves volunteering for Union army illustrated cover, c. 1861 Early in the Civil War, Union General Benjamin Butler decreed that escaped slaves who reached his station at Fort Monroe would be considered "contraband" and not returned to their owners. Although the idea of black troops is caricatured by these envelopes, nearly 200,000 black men served in the Union forces
136. FREEDM_150213_569.JPG: Afrique Corps letter, c. 1863 The Corps d'Afrique was a Union army unit recruited in New Orleans after the city was captured by northern forces in 1862. Initially composed of freeborn, mixed-race Louisiana creoles, it was later augmented by freed slaves.
137. FREEDM_150213_574.JPG: "Servant girl Lucile" stamped envelope, c. 1853-1860 The addressee, Rice Carter Ballard, was a slave dealer who owned plantations in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
138. FREEDM_150213_581.JPG: Slaves sometimes carried letters directly to the recipient, bypassing the postal system entirely. This was often the case when the letter was accompanied by a parcel, since post offices did not handle domestic package mail until 1913.
139. FREEDM_150213_585.JPG: Mrs. Maria Gooch stampless cover, December 22, 1856 A cart and three slaves -- Turner, Lindsay, and Julia -- brought this letter with them to Airfield Plantation near Richmond, Virginia. It was not uncommon for slaves to be given travel passes at Christmastime to visit friends and relatives on other plantations.
140. FREEDM_150213_590.JPG: Littleton Dennis Teackle stampless cover, c 1822-1836 A slave named Moses carried this letter and a trunk to Annapolis, Maryland where Teackle was a member of the state legislature.
141. FREEDM_150213_598.JPG: Mrs. Fitzhugh stampless cover, undated Robert E. Lee addressed this letter to his Fitzhugh relatives at Ravensworth plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia and entrusted it to his carriage driver, Daniel Dotson, for delivery.
142. FREEDM_150213_603.JPG: "Davy Lamar (colored)" stampless letter, undated Slaves occasionally received mail, as evidenced by the endorsement on this letter: "Mr. Wells will please read the enclosed note to Davy."
143. FREEDM_150213_608.JPG: "Sent girl Susan" stampless folded letter, April 17, 1850 I send to you my negro girl Susan aged 16 all rite and a first rate girl big limbs and muscles please sell her and remit... Susan was probably unaware that the letter she carried to the Eastville, Virginia post office contained arrangements for her to be sold to a slave dealer in Richmond. Sent girl Susan stampless folded letter "Servant girl Lucile" stamped envelope, c. 1853-1860 The addressee, Rice Carter Ballard, was a slave dealer who owned plantations in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
144. FREEDM_150213_613.JPG: I send to you my negro girl Susan aged 16 all rite and a first rate girl big limbs and muscles please sell her and remit...
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].