Maya Angelou Forever Stamp unveiled, Robert Robinson Taylor honored with 2015 Black Heritage Stamp

 

The May Angelou Forever Stamp. (Photo: 2015 U.S. Postal Service)
The May Angelou Forever Stamp.
(Photo: 2015 U.S. Postal Service)

WASHINGTON —The U.S. Postal Service announced last month that it would honor Maya Angelou — the beloved author, poet, actress and champion of equality — with a Forever Stamp, and today unveiled the stamp.
“Maya Angelou inspired our nation through a life of advocacy and through her many contributions to the written and spoken word,” said Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan. “Her wide-ranging achievements as a playwright, poet, memoirist, educator, and advocate for justice and equality enhanced our culture.”
The First-Day-of-Issue stamp dedication ceremony will be April 7 at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C., USA Today reports. The ceremony is free and open to the public, but seating is limited.
The stamps can be pre-ordered for delivery shortly after April 7, the Postal Service said.
The stamp uses Ross Rossin’s 2013 portrait of Angelou, which is in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s collection where it will be on display through Nov. 1, USA Today reports. The stamp features this quote from Angelou: “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
In addition, the Chicago Post Office planned a dedication of the Robert Robinson Taylor stamp this past Sunday at the DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Place, during the museum’s “DuSable Day” celebration.
Taylor, believed to have been both the first African-American graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the nation’s first academically trained Black architect, was inducted into the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage Stamp series in February as the 38th honoree.
Robert Robinson Taylor
For more than three decades, Taylor (1868–1942) supervised the design and construction of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama while also overseeing the school’s programs in industrial education and the building trades. Through his calm leadership and quiet dignity, he earned the admiration of colleagues and students alike while expanding opportunities for African Americans in fields that had largely been closed to them.
Taylor’s son, Robert Rochon Taylor, was a former chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority; the former Robert Taylor Homes housing project was named in his honor. His granddaughter is Chicagoan Valerie Jarrett, White House Senior Advisor.

About Post Author

Comments

From the Web

Skip to content
Verified by MonsterInsights