John Lewis is the latest Black pioneer to be featured on a postage stamp
The U.S. Postal Service stamp was adapted from a photograph of the Georgia Democrat that was taken in 2013.
The U.S. Postal Service has announced that a postage stamp honoring late congressman John Lewis will be issued in 2023.
The Lewis stamp features a photo of the Georgia Democrat that Marco Grob took for a 2013 issue of Time magazine, CNN reports.
The USPS said in a statement Tuesday that the stamp “celebrates the life and legacy” of the civil rights pioneer.
“Lewis spent more than 30 years in Congress steadfastly defending and building on key civil rights gains that he had helped achieve in the 1960s,” USPS said in a news release, NPR reports.
As one of the original Freedom Riders in 1961 and as a follower and colleague of Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis helped organize the March on Washington in 1963. He dedicated his life to the civil rights movement until his death at age 80 in 2020 from advanced-stage pancreatic cancer.
“Even in the face of hatred and violence, as well as some 45 arrests, Lewis remained resolute in his commitment to what he liked to call ‘good trouble,’” the USPS announcement said.
As reported previously on theGrio, Lewis was born in Troy, Alabama, the son of sharecroppers. He experienced racism and bigotry in his youth. The documentary, “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” delves into his life of activism.
The Lewis stamp follows reports that authors Toni Morrison and Ernest J. Gaines as well as late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are among the honorees who the U.S. Postal Service will feature on stamps next year, according to an October news release.
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