New online exhibit puts a stamp on “Black Experience”

Booker T. Washington 10-cent stampIn 1940, Booker T. Washington became the first African American featured on a postage stamp. Since then, notable African Americans — from colonial days to the present — have been honored on more than 100 stamps.

See all these stamps on the National Postal Museum Web site (www.postalmuseum.si.edu/). and learn about the honorees’ contributions to science (George Washington Carver), music (Ella Fitzgerald), journalism (Ida B. Wells), sports (Jessie Owens), civil rights (Martin Luther King) and more.

The Black Experience: African Americans on Stamps (http://www.arago.si.edu/flash/?s1=6eid=107; click Exhibits), a new online collection, will be updated annually as the Postal Service issues additional stamps featuring African-American pioneers and subjects.