OC NAACP Helps Unveil New Stamp Commemorating 1963 March on Washington

Postal workers, members of the Orange County NAACP and other civil rights activists helped unveil Friday the U.S. Postal Service's stamp commemorating the 1963 march on Washington -- something Martin Luther King Jr. called our nation's greatest demonstration for freedom.

The stamp is good "forever."

"It is so appropriate and so fitting for the United States Postal Service to issue this Forever stamp on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington," Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who spoke at the march, said at Friday's unveiling in the nation's capital.

"The march was one of the turning points in the on-going struggle for civil rights and social justice in America. In the years to come, when individuals use this stamp, they will be reminded of the distance we have come and the progress we have made as a nation. And they will be reminded of the civic duty of every American to stand up for what is right in our democracy."

On Aug. 28, 1963, an estimated 250,000 people descended on the national mall, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" at the Lincoln Memorial. The stamp is the last of three in a civil rights series issued this year, after one marking the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and one honoring Rosa Parks on the 100th anniversary of her birth.

The stamp depicts marchers holding signs calling for equal rights and jobs against the background of the Washington Monument. The original was done in oil on board by Gregory Manchess under the art direction of Antonio Alcala.

Less than after the march, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Stamps are available at post offices; at The Postal Store website, usps.com/shop; or by calling 800-STAMP-24.

– City News Service.