Charles W. Chesnutt Graces Black Heritage Stamp

Pioneering Author Honored in Black Heritage Stamp Series

Las Vegas, NV — As the nation observes Black History Month, the U.S. Postal Service is issuing the 31st stamp in its coveted Black Heritage series. Pioneering author Charles Waddell Chesnutt will appear on a 41-cent stamp that will be available nationwide on January 31. An additional North Las Vegas, NV, dedication ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 1, at the 100 Academy of Excellence located at 2341 Comstock Drive.

Essayist, folklorist and novelist Chesnutt was the first African-American fiction writer to earn national acclaim and is best known for his depictions of the African-American experience before and after the Civil War.

Chesnutt was born in Cleveland, OH, in 1858. The son of free blacks, he was raised in Fayetteville, NC, which became a major setting of Chesnutt’s fiction. The pioneering writer is recognized as a major innovator and singular voice among turn-of-the-century literary realists who probed the color line in American life.

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