“Most of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear on No Stamp” is the title of a 2012 album and song from Rock and Roll hall-of-fame hip-hop artists Public Enemy, as well as part of a memorable line from the group’s 1989 hit “Fight the Power.” The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) might disagree with that statement.
On March 29, at the Sarah Vaughan Concert Hall in Newark, N.J., renowned jazz and pop singer Sarah Vaughan will be celebrated with a stamp from the USPS.
According to the USPS’s preview of its 2016 stamps, the artwork is an oil painting of Vaughan in performance and the text accompanying the stamp explains why she is being honored as a Music Icon.
The USPS offers commemorative stamps in several different categories, including Distinguished Americans, American Sports Personalities, Black Heritage, Music Icons, and many more.
Former Postmaster General John E. Potter in “African Americans on Stamps: A Celebration of African American Heritage” said, “For more than 125 years, the USPS’s stamp program has celebrated the people, events, and cultural milestones that are unique to the history of our great nation. African Americans have always played a vital role in shaping that history.”
Last month, activist and African American Episcopal (AME) church founder Richard Allen was emblazoned on a Black Heritage series stamp.
Since 1940, more than 100 African Americans have appeared on USPS postage stamps. Check out this list of blacks who have been featured—many of whom are considered heroes. For biographical information and more about the African Americans who have been honored on USPS stamps, visit http www.birminghamtimes.com.
1940
Booker T. Washington
1948
George Washington Carver (1948, 1998)
1967
Frederick Douglass (1967, 1995)
1969
William Christopher (W.C.) Handy
1973
Henry O. Tanner
1975
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Salem Poor
1978
Harriet Tubman (1978, 1995)
1979
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1979, 1999)
1980
Benjamin Banneker
1981
Dr. Charles Drew
Whitney Moore Young Jr.
1982
Ralph Bunche
Jackie Robinson (1982, 2000)
1983
Scott Joplin
1984
Roberto Clemente (1984, 2000)
Carter G. Woodson
1985
Mary McLeod Bethune
1986
Duke Ellington
Matthew Henson
Sojourner Truth
1987
Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable
1988
James Weldon Johnson
1989
- Philip Randolph
1990
Jesse Owens (1990, 1998)
Ida B. Wells
1991
Jan E. Matzeliger
1992
William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois (1992, 1998)
1993
Percy Lavon Julian
Joe Louis
Clyde McPhatter
Otis Redding
Dinah Washington
1994
Chester Arthur Barnett, known as “Howlin’ Wolf”
Jim Beckwourth
Nat King Cole
Dr. Allison Davis
Billie Holiday
Robert Johnson
McKinley Morganfield, known as “Muddy Waters”
Bill Pickett
Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett, known as “Ma Rainey”
Jimmy Rushing
Bessie Smith
Ethel Waters
1995
Louis Armstrong
Eubie Blake
Bessie Coleman
John Coltrane
Errol Garner
Coleman Hawkins
James P. Johnson
Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe, known as “Jelly Roll Morton”
Charles Mingus
Thelonious Monk
Charlie Parker
1996
Count Basie
John Henry
Ernest E. Just
1997
Benjamin O. Davis Sr.
1998
Mahalia Jackson
Huddie William Ledbetter, known as “Lead Belly”
Roberta Martin
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Madame C.J. Walker
Clara Ward
Josh White
1999
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, known as Malcom X
2000
Josh Gibson
Patricia Roberts Harris
Satchel Paige
2001
Roy Wilkins
2002
Langston Hughes
Ethel L. Payne
2003
Zora Neale Hurston
Thurgood Marshall
2004
Alvin Ailey
James Baldwin
Paul Robeson
Wilma Rudolph
2005
Arthur Ashe
Marian Anderson
2006
Hattie McDaniel
Sugar Ray Robinson
2007
Ella Fitzgerald
2008
Charles W. Chesnutt
2009
Anna Julia Cooper
Richard Wright
2010
Oscar Micheaux
2011
Barbara Jordan
2012
Miles Davis
John H. Johnson
2013
Ray Charles
Althea Gibson
2014
- Alfred “Chief” Anderson
Wilt Chamberlain
Shirley Chisolm
Ralph Ellison
Jimi Hendrix
2015
Robert Robinson Taylor
Maya Angelou
2016
Richard Allen
Sarah Vaughan
Source: United States Postal Service.
