COLLECTION EXTOLS BLACK AMERICANS : STAMPS ILLUMINATE FIGURES IN HISTORY.Byline: Karen Thacker Special to the Daily News As most stamp collectors can attest To solemnly declare verbally or in writing that a particular document or testimony about an event is a true and accurate representation of the facts; to bear witness to. To formally certify by a signature that the signer has been present at the execution of a particular writing so as , there is a story behind each collectible piece of postage: a person, a part of history or geography. This month, African-American history is the focus of Tom DeSha's stamp collection on display at the Lancaster Library. Each of some 25 stamps related to African-Americans is explained in a 400-word essay about the person or event it portrays. ``You can learn all kinds of stuff,'' DeSha said. ``I like to research the subject matter and write little stories about what's on What's On (Traditional Chinese: 熒幕八爪娛) is a weekly half-hour TV series that airs on Fairchild Television. Format Originally started in 1996, the show is currently the longest-running program in Fairchild Television history. the stamp.'' Familiar faces include civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., abolitionist Harriet Tubman, United Nations diplomat Ralph Bunche Noun 1. Ralph Bunche - United States diplomat and United Nations official (1904-1971) Bunche, Ralph Johnson Bunche , poet Paul Laurence Dunbar ''' Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life, one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia. and DeSha's favorite, Mary Bethune. ``She as a little girl realized education was the only way to escape the poverty of the post-slavery era,'' DeSha said. She started a school in an abandoned shack using charred sticks from the fire as writing instruments. Bethune went on to found the National Council of Negro Women The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) was founded in 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune, child of slave parents, distinguished educator and government consultant. Mary McLeod Bethune saw the need for harnessing the power and extending the leadership of African American women through in 1935, and she worked in a number of government positions, advising Presidents Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower. Another favorite stamp commemorates the Buffalo Soldiers buffalo soldiers, name given to the African-American U.S. army regiments commissioned by Congress to patrol the American West after the Civil War. Consisting of two infantry and two cavalry regiments, they were the first such units chartered in peacetime. , two African-American cavalry units in the post-Civil War West, given their nickname by American Indians American Indians: see Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the; Natives, Middle American; Natives, North American; Natives, South American. . Almost every year since the 1970s, the post office has issued a Black Heritage Series stamp around February. Many other noted African-Americans are highlighted in stamp series honoring jazz and blues musicians Performers in the blues style range from primitive, one-chord Delta players to big bands to country music to rock and roll to classical music. Early country blues
Before the '70s, finding African-Americans honored on stamps was not so common. The first stamp representing African-Americans portrayed Booker T. Washington, the famed educator and author, in 1940. A few years later, a stamp honoring agricultural chemist George Washington Carver was issued. It was a stamp honoring African-American cowboy and rodeo great Bill Pickett Willie M. "Bill" Pickett (December 5, 1870 - April 2, 1932) was a cowboy and rodeo performer. Pickett was born in the Jenks-Branch community of Travis County, Texas. He was the second of 13 children born to Thomas Jefferson Pickett, a former slave, and Mary "Janie" Gilbert. , however, that got the most attention from stamp collectors when it came out in October 1994 as part of the 20-stamp Legends of the West series. ``They started printing them, and the family of Bill Pickett saw it, and they called the post office and told them they had the wrong picture - they actually had a picture of his brother Ben Pickett,'' DeSha said. The post office recalled the stamps, but not before a few were sold. The price for stamps bearing the wrong Pickett skyrocketed to $5,000 to $15,000. Numerous complaints led to the post office selling 150,000 of the stamps with the wrong image in a lottery, reducing the price to $150 to $200, DeSha said. The price is still high because the usual number of copies of a particular stamp is about 300 million. (Neither the Pickett stamp nor the Washington or Carver stamps are on display at the library.) Through the end of February, viewers can see the stamp and the stories about them in the display case near the circulation desk at the Lancaster Library, on Lancaster Boulevard at Cedar Avenue. CAPTION(S): 4 Photos Photo: (1--color) Jazz greats are commemorated in the Legends of American Music series, issued in September 1995, displayed at Lancaster Library. Jeff Goldwater/Daily News (2--color) no caption (Harriet Tubman stamp) (3--color) no caption (Jackie Robinson Noun 1. Jackie Robinson - United States baseball player; first Black to play in the major leagues (1919-1972) Jack Roosevelt Robinson, Robinson stamp) (4--color) no caption (Martin Luther King Jr. stamp) |
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