Compton : Black Heritage Stamp to Be Unveiled Friday at School
The newest stamp in the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage Series will be unveiled Friday at Kennedy Elementary School in Compton. The 13th stamp in the series, it commemorates the life of Ida B. Wells, who was born a slave but became one of the nation’s earliest civil rights leaders.
A portrait of Wells appears on the stamp and in the background is a row of pickets symbolizing her participation in the fight for equal rights. A teacher, Wells turned to journalism after being fired by a Memphis, Tenn., school board because she refused to give up her seat on a “whites only” railroad car.
She became owner and editor of the Memphis weekly, Free Speech. When she revealed in the paper who was responsible for the lynching of three black people, a white mob destroyed her presses and her office and she had to flee for her life. Settling in New York and, later, Chicago, Wells devoted much of her life to writing and speaking tours that drew attention to lynchings. She also was one of the founders of the NAACP.
Compton Unified School District officials, as well as Postal Service representatives, will attend the 9:30 a.m. unveiling.
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