Oscar Micheaux Stamp
Negro Leagues Stamp
The United States postal service maybe in deep financial trouble but they continue to strike gold with their entries to The Black Heritage stamp series and their stead fast recognition of Black history and culture. Please visit The Museum of UnCut Funk new acquistions page to read more about the Oscar Micheaux and Negro Leagues stamps and visit our previous blog pages to see our stamp collection.
The Museum of UnCut Funk has acquired the latest stamps from the United States Post Office Black Heritage Series, the Distinguished Soldiers stamp featuring Doris Miller and the Anna Julia Cooper stamp.
Doris Miller, known as “Dorie” to shipmates and friends, was born in Waco, Texas, on October 12, 1919, to Henrietta and Conery Miller. He had three brothers, one of which served in the Army during World War II. While attending Moore High School in Waco, he was a fullback on the football team. He worked on his father’s farm before enlisting in the U.S Navy as Mess Attendant, Third Class, at Dallas, Texas, on September 16, 1939, to travel, and earn money for his family. He later was commended by the Secretary of the Navy, was advanced to Mess Attendant, Second Class and First Class, and subsequently was promoted to Cook, Third Class.
Following training at the Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Virginia, Miller was assigned to the ammunition ship USS Pyro (AE-1) where he served as a Mess Attendant, and on January 2, 1940 was transferred to USS West Virginia (BB-48), where he became the ship’s heavyweight boxing champion. In July of that year he had temporary duty aboard USS Nevada (BB-36) at Secondary Battery Gunnery School. He returned to West Virginia and on 3 August, and was serving in that battleship when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Miller had arisen at 6 a.m., and was collecting laundry when the alarm for general quarters sounded. He headed for his battle station, the antiaircraft battery magazine amidship, only to discover that torpedo damage had wrecked it, so he went on deck. Because of his physical prowess, he was assigned to carry wounded fellow Sailors to places of greater safety. Then an officer ordered him to the bridge to aid the mortally wounded Captain of the ship. He subsequently manned a 50 caliber Browning anti-aircraft machine gun until he ran out of ammunition and was ordered to abandon ship.
Miller described firing the machine gun during the battle, a weapon which he had not been trained to operate: “It wasn’t hard. I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about fifteen minutes. I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us.”
During the attack, Japanese aircraft dropped two armored piercing bombs through the deck of the battleship and launched five 18-inch aircraft torpedoes into her port side. Heavily damaged by the ensuing explosions, and suffering from severe flooding below decks, the crew abandoned ship while West Virginia slowly settled to the harbor bottom. Of the 1,541 men on West Virginia during the attack, 130 were killed and 52 wounded. Subsequently refloated, repaired, and modernized, the battleship served in the Pacific theater through to the end of the war in August 1945.
Miller was commended by the Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox on April 1, 1942, and on 27 May 1942 he received the Navy Cross, which Fleet Admiral (then Admiral) Chester W. Nimitz, the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet personally presented to Miller on board aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) for his extraordinary courage in battle. Speaking of Miller, Nimitz remarked:
This marks the first time in the conflict that such high tribute has been made in the Pacific Fleet to a member of his race and I’m sure that the future will see others similarly honored for brave acts.
On December 13, 1941, Miller reported to USS Indianapolis (CA-35), and subsequently returned to the west coast of the United States in November 1942. Assigned to the newly constructed USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) in the spring of 1943, Miller was on board that escort carrier during Operation Galvanic, the seizure of Makin and Tarawa Atolls in the Gilbert Islands. Liscome Bay’s aircraft supported operations ashore between November 20-23, 1943. At 5:10 a.m. on November 24, while cruising near Butaritari Island, a single torpedo from Japanese submarine I-175 struck the escort carrier near the stern. The aircraft bomb magazine detonated a few moments later, sinking the warship within minutes. Listed as missing following the loss of that escort carrier, Miller was officially presumed dead November 25, 1944, a year and a day after the loss of Liscome Bay. Only 272 Sailors survived the sinking of Liscome Bay, while 646 died.
In addition to the Navy Cross, Miller was entitled to the Purple Heart Medal; the American Defense Service Medal, Fleet Clasp; the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal; and the World War II Victory Medal.
Commissioned on June 30, 1973, USS Miller (FF-1091), a Knox-class frigate, was named in honor of Doris Miller.
On October 11, 1991, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority dedicated a bronze commemorative plaque of Miller at the Miller Family Park located on the U.S.
Source: The Navy Museum
Anna Julia Cooper, a woman born into slavery in North Carolina nine years prior to the Civil War, reached milestones as the first woman to publish a book on Black feminism, “A Voice from the South by a Black Woman from the South,” and one of the first Black women to earn a doctorate from world renowned University of Paris, Sorbonne.
Her accomplishments have not gone unnoticed. On Thursday, June 11, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled the Anna Julia Cooper Commemorative Stamp at the Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School in Northwest.
Cooper, who also worked as a teacher and principal at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth (later known as M Street School and today as Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School), was honored by the Postmaster of Washington, D.C., Yverne Pat Moore, Vice President and Consumer Advocate for the United States Postal Service Delores J. Killette, Professor of English at University of Maryland Carla L. Peterson, Dunbar High School Principal R. Gerald Austin, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Cooper is the 32nd honoree to be inducted into the Black Heritage Stamp Series.
“Anna Julia Cooper once said, ‘The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class – it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.’ Her actions to support these memorable words during her life are the reason the Postal Service has chosen Ms. Cooper as the subject of the 32nd stamp in the Black Heritage series,” Killette said.
Cooper was freed from slavery after the Civil War and received a scholarship to attend the St. Augustine Normal School and Collegiate Institute, known today as St. Augustine’s College, in 1868. Cooper graduated and married George A.C. Cooper in 1877. Two years later, her husband died and Cooper moved to Ohio and attended Oberlin College, distinguishing her as one of the first Black women to graduate from the school. Cooper earned a degree in math and returned to St. Augustine to teach math, Greek and Latin.
In 1887, Cooper moved to the District where she was invited to teach science and math at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, the most prestigious high school for Black students in the country at that time. Cooper became principal of the school in 1902.
“Although Ms. Cooper was born in Raleigh, N.C., Washington, D.C. claims her as one of its own because she lived her life here and she worked as an educator, feminist, and an activist in our nation’s capital,” Moore said.
“I want to thank the postal service for holding this ceremony. For me, this is very special. This is not the quite the same Dunbar I graduated from, but it is on the same ground,” Norton said.
“This was the first public high school in America for Black children, but it became known nationally and internationally for its faculty. Dunbar would not have become Dunbar without the standards and the aspirations of teachers like Anna Julia Cooper. She set such high standards that in turn they encouraged Black children throughout the District of Columbia to believe that they could go to college and to believe that Dunbar High School would prepare them to go to the best colleges in the United States,” Norton said.
Source: The Washington Informer
The Postal Service issued a souvenir sheet of 37-cent To Form a More Perfect Union stamps in ten designs, on August 30, 2005, in the following locations: Greensboro, North Carolina; Jackson, Mississippi; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; Montgomery, Alabama; Selma, Alabama; Topeka, Kansas; Washington, DC. Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland designed the stamps.
This series recognizes the courage and achievements of the men and women who fought for equal rights during the years of the Civil Rights movement. The series presents an artistic representation of ten pivotal events from the 1948 Executive Order ending segregation in the military to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Stamp designer Ethel Kessler used details from contemporary artworks to comment on all of the ten historical events commemorated on this souvenir sheet.
50 million stamps were printed by Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd. in the offset process.
This stamp series is a part of The Museum of UnCut Funk Collection.
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne
Cause I’m Black and I’m proud
I’m ready and hyped plus I’m amped
Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps…
Fight the Power
Public Enemy
From the 1998 soundtrack from Do The Right Thing
Since 1940, over 150 accomplished Black Americans have been honored by being featured on a U.S. postage stamp. The U.S. Postal Service has issued Black history related stamps to commemorate Black men and women who have contributed to America’s history and who have made a significant difference in the areas such as civil rights, sports, science and music.
Here are a few of my favorites from The Museum of UnCut Funk Collection:
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
In 1940, Booker T. Washington became the first Black American to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp. In 1881, Booker T. Washington became the first principal at Alabama’s Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University), and over the next several decades emerged as the foremost educator and spokesman for Blacks. Washington also helped found the National Negro Business League in 1900 and served as an advisor to presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
This stamp was issued April 7, 1940.
MATTHEW HENSON
Matthew Henson was Admiral Robert Peary’s most trusted member of the expedition that discovered the North Pole. Born in Charles County, Maryland in 1866, Henson went to sea at age 13 and for several years traveled all around the world. When he first met Peary,
Henson was in his early twenties and their shared sense of adventure bound them together for more than 20 years. Henson accompanied Peary on several attempts to reach
the North Pole, which they finally reached together on April 6, 1909.
This stamp was issued May 28, 1986.
JEAN BAPTISTE POINTE DU SABLE
A pioneer and entrepreneur, Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable is acknowledged to be the founder of Chicago for having established the first permanent trading post at the mouth of the Chicago River in 1779. At his settlement, Du Sable exhibited skill and knowledge as a merchant, fur trader, farmer and businessman.
This stamp was issued February 20, 1987
IDA B. WELLS
Ida B.Wells devoted her life to educating people about the horrors of discrimination against Blacks and women. Her first job was as a teacher, but she became a journalist when she started to write about her experiences of suing a railroad company for discrimination. Much of her journalism career centered on the anti lynching crusade and voting rights for women. She was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and she founded the first suffrage club for Black women.
This stamp was issued February 1, 1990.
BUFFALO SOLDIERS
Courageous Black soldiers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments helped patrol the West after the Civil War. Their bravery and toughness won them respect from Native Americans, who honored them with the name “Buffalo Soldiers” after the rugged plains animal they revered. Buffalo Soldiers also served with Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders in the battle of San Juan in the Spanish-American War.
This stamp was issued April 22,1994.
BILL PICKETT
William M. “Bill” Pickett invented the cowboy sport of steer wrestling, also called bulldogging.” Employing a technique he saw ranch dogs use, Pickett would bite the steer’s lip to make it more docile and easier to control. Starring in this event, he and his horse Spradley became a box-office draw in rodeos at home and abroad. Pickett was voted into the National Cowboy and Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1971.
This stamp was issued October 18, 1994.
JIM BECKWOURTH
During his life as a frontiersman, James P. “Jim” Beckwourth was a miner, guide, fur trapper, company agent, army scout, soldier and hunter. On a scouting expedition in the early 1850s, he discovered a pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Sacramento Valley, opening a clear pathway to California.
This stamp was issued October 18, 1994.
BESSIE COLEMAN
Bessie Coleman was the first Black to receive a pilot’s license, which she earned in France after being denied entry into flight schools in the United States. She returned to the United States and performed in air shows as a stunt flyer. Her goal was to establish a flight school for Blacks, but she died tragically in a plane crash on April 30, 1926, before she could realize her dream.
This stamp was issued April 27, 1995.
JOHN HENRY
John Henry is a Black folk hero who symbolizes
strength and determination. The stories about John Henry are not just “tall tales,” they are based on the life of a real person, a former slave working on the railroads after the Civil War. In the stories, John Henry, a strong “steel-driving man,”accepted the challenge of trying to outperform a steam-powered drill. Swinging a heavy hammer in each hand, he beat the machine but died soon after — some say from exhaustion, others say from a broken heart on realizing that machines would replace muscle and spirit.
This stamp was issued July 11, 1996.
MADAM C.J. WALKER
Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867, Madam C.J.Walker became a beauty products pioneer and one of the nation’s first female millionaires. In the early 1900s, using her husband’s name (Charles Joseph Walker), she developed a very successful business manufacturing hair goods and preparations, and her company eventually became one of the country’s largest Black owned business. Walker also became one of the era’s leading Black philanthropists and political activists, strongly supporting education, charitable institutions, political rights and economic
opportunities for Blacks and women.
This stamp was issued January 28, 1998.
