The 2008 African American Read-In program will include the Dallas unveiling of the U.S. Postal Service's latest stamp in its Black Heritage series.
On January 31, 2008, in Cleveland, Ohio, the Postal Service™ will issue a 41-cent, Charles W. Chesnutt commemorative stamp in one design in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 stamps (Item 462800). Designed by Howard E. Paine of Delaplane, Virginia, the stamp goes on sale nationwide January 31, 2008.
With the 31st stamp in the Black Heritage series, the U.S. Postal Service honors Charles W. Chesnutt, a pioneering writer recognized today as a major innovator and singular voice among turn-of-the-century literary realists who probed the color line in American life. Art director Howard Paine wanted a stamp that emphasized Chesnutt's intelligence and dignity; the portrait painted by stamp artist Kazuhiko Sano of Mill Valley, California, is based on a 1908 photograph from the special collections of Fisk University's Franklin Library.
