Civil Rights Leader John Lewis To Be Featured On U.S. Postage Stamp

GEORGIA — The late civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis will get his own stamp to debut in 2023, the United States Postal Service announced Tuesday.

Lewis died July 17, 2020, of pancreatic cancer in Atlanta. His remains were walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, after his death, and he was the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, according to the U.S. House of Representatives historical archives.

Lewis, a Democrat, was a member of Congress from 1987 until his death. A U.S. post office at 3900 Crown Road in Atlanta was renamed the John R. Lewis Post Office Building on Oct. 4.

"Devoted to equality and justice for all Americans, Lewis spent more than 30 years in Congress steadfastly defending and building on key civil rights gains that he had helped achieve in the 1960s," read a statement from the USPS. "Even in the face of hatred and violence, as well as some 45 arrests, Lewis remained resolute in his commitment to what he liked to call 'good trouble.'"

According to House archives, Lewis was a driving force behind voter registration, and he spoke out against segregation. He was one of several activists who marched in 1965 on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in opposition of voter suppression. The protesters were attacked with tear gas and police batons, and Lewis suffered a fractured skull, on what became known as Bloody Sunday, according to House archives.

Lewis' stamp will feature a photo of him taken by Marco Grob, who the USPS said took it for the Aug. 26, 2013, issue of Time Magazine. The selvage shows a photo of "Lewis taken by Steve Schapiro in 1963 outside a workshop about nonviolent protests in Clarksdale (Mississippi)," according to the USPS. Derry Noyes was the art director for the stamp.