Atlanta to host celebration to mark 1st day of sales for John Lewis Stamp
A promotional image showing a new postage stamp honoring the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights giant who died in 2020. (U.S. Postal Service Photo)
ATLANTA - The release date for a stamp honoring former Georgia Rep. John Lewis is coming up soon, and you're invited to a special dedication celebrating the civil rights icon.
The stamp features a photograph of Lewis taken by Marco Grob on assignment for the August 26, 2013, issue of Time magazine.
Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general of the United States, said the Lewis forever stamp — which can be used to mail a one-ounce letter regardless of when the stamps are purchased or used — will be issued on July 21.
As part of the celebration surrounding the first day of the stamp being issued, the U.S. Postal Service will commemorate Lewis' life with a ceremony at Morehouse College.
To attend the ceremony, which will start at noon Friday, you can RSVP here.
Lewis was best known for leading some 600 protesters in the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. He also joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and four other civil rights leaders in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. He spoke to the vast crowd just before King delivered his epochal "I Have a Dream" speech.
REP. JOHN LEWIS, LION OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, DIES AT 80
Lewis won his seat in Congress in 1986 and spent much of his career in the minority. After Democrats won control of the House in 2006, Lewis became his party’s senior deputy whip, a behind-the-scenes leadership post in which he helped keep the party unified.
Lewis was a forceful speaker with a booming voice. He would encourage colleagues and young visitors to the Capitol to find what he called "good trouble."
Along with the stamp, the main post office facility in Atlanta will be named after Lewis in an August ceremony.
Other stamps coming in the remainder of 2023 include ones honoring former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, snow globes, and NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid study.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.