John Lewis Stamps, Forever 73¢

With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates the life and legacy of civil rights leader and congressman john Lewis (19402020). Devoted to equalitly and justice for all Americans, Lewis spent more than 30 years in Congress steadfastly defending andbuilding on kev civil rights gains that he had helped achieve in the 1960s, Even in the face of hatred and violence, as well as some45 arrests, Lewis remained resolute in his commitment to what he liked to call “good trouble.
The stamp features a photograph of Lewis taken by Marco Grob on assignment for the August 26, 2013, issue of Time magazineThe selvage showcases a photograph of Lewis taken by Steve Schapiro in 1963 outside a workshop about nonviolent protest inClarksdale, Mississippi.
A key figure in some of the most pivotal moments of the civil rights movement, Lewis was the face of the Nashvile StudenMovement, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an original Freedom Rider, and one of the keynotespeakers at the 1963 March on Washington. He served as executive director of the Voter Education Project; as associate directolof ACTlON, the federal volunteer agency that oversaw the Peace Corps and ViSTA; and as a member of the Atlanta City Counci.He was also the best-seling author of several books, including the March comic book series and the inspiring autobiography,Walking with the wind.
The defining moment of Lewis’s life occurred on Sunday, March 7, 1965. Lewis and about 600 others intended to march fromSelma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery, 50 miles away, in support of equal voting rights. As he and the othermarchers reached the crest of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma that day, they saw on the other side what Lewis later describedas a “sea of blue” -Alabama state troopers, who ordered them to disperse. instead, the demonstrators knelt in prayer. Throughclouds of tear gas, the troopers advanced, trampling the marchers under horses and hiting them with nightsticks. Lewis, who wasstruck over the head and repeatedly beaten, crumpled to the ground with a fractured skul. That day became known as “BloodySunday.”
Broadcast on televisions nationwide, the brutal response to what was a peaceful, nonviolent demonstration helped galvanizepublic opposition to racial segregation. just a week after Bloody Sunday, President Lyndon B. johnson introduced the VotingRights Act during a joint session of Congress. The landmark legislation, which strengthened the federal government’s ability toprevent state and local governments from denying citizens the right to vote because of race, was sianed into law on Ayaust 6Elected to represent Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986, Lewis garered the support needed to pass the CivilRights Act of 1991, sponsored the legislation that created the 54-mile-long Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trai, andworked for more than a decade to establish the National Mluseum of African American History and Culture on the National MallinWashington, D.C, Halled as the “conscience of the Conaress,” he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. the nation’shighest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
Derry Noyes served as art director for this stamp.
The John Lewis stamp is being issued as a Forevere stamp, This Forever stamp will alwavs be eaual in value to the curent FirstClass Mail® one-ounce price.
Made in the USA.