On Wednesday, Congressional leaders unveiled a new stamp honoring the late Civil Rights Icon, Rep. John Lewis.
The final design was revealed in the Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and others.
According to a U.S. Postal Service press release, the preliminary stamp, which was announced in December 2022, features a 2013 photograph of the congressman taken by Marco Grob for Time magazine. A photograph of Lewis taken by Steve Schapiro in 1963 at a workshop on nonviolent protest in Clarksdale, Mississippi, is planned for the margin of the printed stamp sheets.
“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,” the Postal Service statement read.
Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, served in the House from 1987 until his death in July 2020 from stage 4 pancreatic cancer. His phrase “good trouble” became a rallying cry for supporters advocating for equality. Lewis was an original member of the Freedom Riders, and his skull was fractured by Alabama state troopers in Selma in 1965 during “Bloody Sunday.”
In July 2020, Lewis became the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol. “Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe,” Lewis wrote in a 2020 New York Times op-ed published after his death. “In my life, I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.”
