By Anne Murray, Postmaster Ft Myers/Cape Coral

Fort Myers, Cape Coral Fl — The U.S. Postal Service is honoring twelve United States civil rights pioneers. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Board was the dedication location for the Feb. 21 ceremony immortalizing the courage, commitment, and achievements of the twelve individuals. The pane of six 42-cent stamps is on sale nationwide; each stamp features two pioneers.

Art director Ethel Kessler and stamp designer Greg Berger, both of Bethesda, MD, chose to approach the development of the stamps through photograph montage. Pairing two pioneers in each stamp was a way of intensifying the montage effect.

The twelve individuals honored include:

• Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954). Throughout her long life as a writer, activist, and lecturer, she was a powerful advocate for racial justice and women’s rights in America and abroad.
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• Mary White Ovington (1865-1951). This journalist and social worker believed passionately in racial equality and was a founder of the NAACP.
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• J. R. Clifford (1848-1933). He 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.
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• Joel Elias Spingarn (1875-1939). Because coverage of blacks in the media tended to be negative, he endowed the prestigious Spingarn Medal, awarded annually since 1915, to highlight black achievement.
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• Oswald Garrison Villard (1872-1949). He was one of the founders of the NAACP and wrote the “Call” leading to its formation.
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• Daisy Gatson Bates (1914-1999). She 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.
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• Charles Hamilton Houston (1895-1950). This lawyer and educator was a main architect of the civil rights movement. He believed in using laws to better the lives of underprivileged citizens.
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• Walter White (1893-1955). Blue eyes and a fair complexion enabled this leader of the NAACP to make daring undercover investigations.
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• Medgar Evers (1925-1963). He served with distinction as an official of the NAACP in Mississippi until his assassination in 1963.
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• Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977). She was a Mississippi sharecropper who fought for black voting rights and spoke for many when she said, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
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• Ella Baker (1903-1986). Her lifetime of activism made her a skillful organizer. She encouraged women and young people to assume positions of leadership in the civil rights movement.
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• Ruby Hurley (1909-1980). As a courageous and capable official with the NAACP, she did difficult, dangerous work in the South.

For more information about purchasing stamps, stamps by mail, postal regulations, a free subscription to USA Philatelic magazine, Post Office events, the location of the nearest postal store or contract unit, or for answers to your specific Postal Service questions, contact USPS at 1-800-275-8777, or visit www.usps.com.

To schedule a presentation for your community, club or group on how the Postal Service brings the Post Office to your home or office computer, call 239-573-9638.

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