History and Background of the Charles W. Chesnutt Commemorative Stamp
Zeigler, Mary B., Studies in the Literary Imagination
The United States Postal Service inducted Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) into the Black Heritage Stamp Series on January 31, 2008, in Cleveland, Ohio. The USPS began issuing its popular Black Heritage stamp series in 1978 with a stamp honoring Harriet Tubman and has featured a new honoree each year since then. Chesnutt, who appears on a 41-cent commemorative stamp, is the thirty-first honoree. Under the direction of art director Howard Paine, stamp artist Kazuhiko Sano of Mill Valley, California, painted the portrait of Chesnutt based on a 1908 photograph from the special collections of Fisk University's Franklin Library.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
THE BLACK HERITAGE STAMP SERIES
1978: Harriet Tubman--abolitionist, humanitarian
1979: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--civil rights activist, pastor
1980: Benjamin Banneker--inventor
1981: Whitney Moore Young, Jr.--director of National Urban League
1982: Jackie Robinson--baseball player
1983: Scott Joplin--composer and pianist
1984: Dr. Carter G. Woodson--historian
1985: Mary McLeod Bethune--educator, social activist
1986: Sojourner Truth--lecturer, activist
1987: Jean Baptiste DuSable--entrepreneur
1988: James Weldon Johnson--lawyer, educator
1989: A. Philip Randolph--civil rights spokesperson
1990: Ida B. Wells--educator, journalist
1991: Jan E. Matzeliger--inventor
1992: W. E. B. DuBois--scholar, civil rights leader
1993: Percy Lavon Julian--chemist
1994: Dr. Allison Davis--psychologist
1995: Bessie Coleman--aviator
1996: Ernest E. Just--marine biologist
1997: Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.--US Army general
1998: Madam C. J. Walker--entrepreneur
1999: Malcolm X--scholar, civil rights activist
2000: Patricia Roberts Harris--ambassador
2001: Roy Wilkins--NAACP leader
2002: Langston Hughes--novelist, poet
2003: Thurgood Marshall--Supreme Court Justice
2004: Paul Robeson--actor
2005: Marian Anderson--singer
2006: Hattie McDaniel--actress
2007: Ella Fitzgerald--jazz vocalist
2008: Charles W. Chesnutt--author
CHESNUTT BIOGRAPHY
Charles Waddell Chesnutt was born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 20, 1858, to Andrew Jackson Chesnutt and Ann Maria Simpson, both of whom were free blacks at the time of his birth. His parents had moved to Cleveland two years earlier from Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 1866, following the Civil War, his family returned to Fayetteville where his parents operated a grocery store. Charles attended a Freedmen's Bureau school at age eight and by age sixteen taught at a school for black children in Charlotte. Chesnutt served as the principal of the State Colored Normal School, located on the second floor of the Howard School, in Fayetteville from 1877-1883. …
The rest of this article is only available to active members of Questia
Already a member? Log in now.