Borough President Unveils Charles W. Chesnutt Stamp at School he Attended as a Brooklyn Youth (P.S. 91K)

BROOKLYN, NY — A special unveiling for the Charles W. Chesnutt stamp will be held Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 10 am, at PS 91K, the Albany School. The Chesnutt stamp is the 31st in the Black Heritage series and is also being issued in celebration of Black History Month.

Attending the event will be Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz (who attended P.S. 91K as a youth), as well as many local politicians or their representatives and postal officials. The Albany School is located at 532 Albany Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, 11203.

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was a pioneering writer recognized today as a major innovator and singular voice among turn-of-the-century literary realists. In novels such as The Marrow of Tradition and short stories such as those collected in The Conjure Woman, he probed the color line in American life.

Art Director Howard Paine wanted a stamp that emphasized Chesnutt’s intelligence and dignity; the portrait painted above by stamp artist Kazuhiko Sano was based on a 1908 photograph from the collection of Fisk University.

# # #

Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/news.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation — 146 million homes and businesses. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.