What:
The U.S. Postal Service will issue a new 44-cent commemorative stamp honoring Anna Julia Cooper, a Civil Rights activist and former teacher and principal of Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (previously Preparatory High School for Colored Youth and M Street High School) in the nation’s capital.

Who:
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, (D) District of Columbia
Yverne “Pat” Moore, Postmaster, Washington, DC
Gerald Austin, Principal, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
Delores J. Killette, Vice President and Consumer Advocate, U.S. Postal Service
Malik Shabaazz, 2009 Graduate, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
Carla L. Peterson, Professor of English, University of Maryland

When:
Thursday, June 11, 2009
10:00 a.m.

Where:
Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
1301 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC

Background:
Educator, scholar, feminist, and activist Anna Julia Cooper (c.1858–1964) gave voice to the African-American community from the end of slavery to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Born into slavery, Cooper developed a love of learning at a young age. In 1887, three years after earning a degree in mathematics from Oberlin College, she was invited to Washington, D.C., to each at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth (later M Street High School and today Dunbar), the nation’s largest and most prestigious public high school for African Americans at that time.

Noted for the breadth of her education, Cooper also earned a Ph.D. from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, in 1925. At the time, she was one of only four African-American women to earn a Ph.D. and the first black woman from any country to do so at the Sorbonne.

The 32^nd stamp in the Black Heritage series features a portrait of Cooper by Kadir Nelson, who based his painting on an updated photograph.

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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 149 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes, six days a week. It has 34,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services, not tax dollars, to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.