Black First of the Day

1940

Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915)

The first black American depicted on a U.S. postage stamp was Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915) in 1940. His photograph was reproduced on the ten-cent brown stamp, which became available on April 7, 1940, at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The stamp was part of the Famous American Commemorative series issued in 1940. He was honored again on a stamp in 1956, marking the one-hundredth anniversary of his birth. Perhaps the two most important black-related stamps are the Thirteenth Amendment issue of 1940, which celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Constitutional abolition of slavery in the United States, and the Emancipation Proclamation stamp of 1963, which honored the one-hundredth anniversary of the freeing of slaves in federally controlled areas during the Civil War.

Sources: Jet 84 (28 June 1993): 48-51; Kane, Famous First Facts, p. 482; "An African-American Philatelic Experience," www.slsabyrd.com; www.esperstamps.prg/black-h1.htm.

From Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Events by Jessie Carney Smith, © 2013 Visible Ink Press®. A celebration of achievement, accomplishments and pride.