Jazz Festival features stamp dedication of NC hero Saturday

First such event in North Carolina this year

GREENSBORO — The Triad Youth Jazz Society and the U.S. Postal Service will dedicate the newest entry of the Black Heritage stamp series, the 44-cent commemorative postage stamp featuring Anna Julia Cooper, activist and alumnae of St. Augustine's College in Raleigh. The event will be held during the Third Annual Triad International Jazz Festival, on Saturday, June 13, 2009, at Festival Park, 200 N. Davie Street in downtown Greensboro; the Festival begins at 2 pm, while the stamp will be dedicated at about 7:30 pm. It will be the first dedication of this stamp in North Carolina.

Educator, scholar, feminist and activist Anna Julia Cooper (c.1858–1964), who gave voice to the African-American community during the 19th and 20th centuries — from the end of slavery to the beginning of the Civil Rights movement — was immortalized on postage Thursday in a national unveiling in Washington, D.C., where she gained prominence at Dunbar High School (formerly known as the M School), the largest and most prestigious public high school for African Americans in the nation in the early 20th century.

Cooper, best known for her groundbreaking collection of essays and speeches, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, also exhibited educational leadership, most notably challenging the racist notion that African Americans were naturally inferior. In 1925, she became the fourth African-American woman to earn a Ph.D.

The Festival features live entertainment, jazz and literacy workshops, interactive games for children, food, vendors and more. Tickets to the event are $10 in advance — for information, call (336)965-1548 or visit www.triadyouthjazzsociety.com.