On 2 February, 1988, the U.S. Postal Service added another collectible postage stamp to its Black Heritage commemorative stamps series with their dedication of the first class 22-cent James Weldon Johnson stamp. Johnson, a noted song writer and poet, appears on the 11th stamp in the popular Black Heritage stamp series.
The Early Life of James Weldon Johnson
According to the James Weldon Johnson biography on the University of South Carolina web site, Johnson was born on 17 June, 1871, in Jacksonville, Florida.
From an early age, Johnson was encouraged to study music and literature. After graduating high school, Johnson attended Atlanta University and earned an A.B. in 1894. From Atlanta University, Johnson became the principal of a school in Jacksonville where his mother had served as Florida's first black public school teacher.
In 1895, Johnson founded the Daily American, a newspaper aimed at Jacksonville's adult black community, but finances caused it to be shut down after only eight months. Undeterred, Johnson studied law and soon became the first African American to pass Florida's bar exam.
Johnson began collaborating with his brother, John, in 1897. Together they composed many songs, including "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which later became known as the "Negro National Anthem" or the "Black National Anthem". In 1903, after moving to New York with his brother and becoming a successful song writer, Johnson grew tired of his craft and began taking graduate courses in literature at Columbia University.
The Literary Works of James Weldon Johnson
In 1906, Johnson became a consul to Venezuela, where he began writing poetry and worked on a novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, which was published 1912. In 1913, Johnson resigned his post and moved back to New York, where he published Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917).
In 1916, Johnson was offered the position of field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1920, Johnson became general secretary of the NAACP, a position which required an enormous amount of his time.
Through it all, Johnson continued to work in literature, assembling three anthologies: The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922 - containing his most famous poem, "The Creation"), The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925), and The Second Book of Negro Spirituals(1926). Johnson also continued to work on his writing, publishing a book of poetry titled God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927), a history of black life in New York called Black Manhattan (1930), an autobiographical work titled Along This Way(1933), and a book championing racial integration entitled Negro Americans, What Now? (1934).
James Weldon Johnson died 26 June, 1938, in Wiscasset, Maine, when his car was struck by a train.
USPS James Weldon Johnson Black Heritage Stamp
As seen in USA Philatelic: Beyond the Perf, Issue 016, stamp artist Thomas Blackshear II, who designed four different Black Heritage stamps, created the artwork for the James Weldon Johnson stamp. The Johnson stamp has been issued Scott #2371.
United States Stamps in the Black Heritage Series
As of 22 June, 2010, there are 33 stamps in the USPS Black Heritage series. With each new collectible postage stamp, the USPS generates recognition for often-overlooked contributors to American history and society. The current list of Black Heritage stamp subjects can be found below. For those interested in postage stamp collecting, the Scott catalog number is found beside each stamp.
- Harriet Tubman (Scott #1744)
- Martin Luther King, Jr. (Scott #1771)
- Benjamin Banneker (Scott #1804)
- Whitney Moore Young, Jr. (Scott #1875)
- Jackie Robinson (Scott #2016)
- Scott Joplin (Scott #2044)
- Carter G. Woodson (Scott #2073)
- Mary McLeod Bethune (Scott #2137)
- Sojourner Truth (Scott #2203)
- Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable (Scott #2249)
- James Weldon Johnson (Scott #2371)
- A. Philip Randolph (Scott #2402)
- Ida B. Wells (Scott #2442)
- Jan E. Matzeliger (Scott #2567)
- W.E.B. Du Bois (Scott #2617)
- Percy Lavon Julian (Scott #2746)
- Dr. Allison Davis (Scott #2816)
- Bessie Coleman (Scott #2956)
- Ernest E. Just (Scott #3058)
- Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. (Scott #3121)
- Madam C.J. Walker (Scott #3181)
- Malcolm X (Scott #3273)
- Patricia Roberts Harris (Scott #3371)
- Roy Wilkins (Scott #3501)
- Langston Hughes (Scott #3557)
- Thurgood Marshall (Scott #3746)
- Paul Robeson (Scott #3834)
- Marian Anderson (Scott #3896)
- Hattie McDaniel (Scott #3996)
- Ella Fitzgerald (Scott #4120)
- Charles W. Chesnutt (Scott #4222)
- Anna Julia Cooper (Scott #4408)
- Oscar Micheaux (Scott #4464)
According to the USPS, the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC) has identified a wide range of nominees for the Black Heritage series. Nominees come from the entertainment, activist, entrepreneurial, and scientific fields, among others. With such a long backlist of nominees, the Black Heritage series, despite persistent annual rumors, should continue unabated for years to come.
