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Posts tagged as “United States Postal Service”

Quote from Jazz Virtuoso John Coltrane for #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

Quote from Jazz Virtuoso John Coltrane for #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 3, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

In today’s Daily Drop, for #JazzAppreciationMonth we offer a quote from jazz legend and pioneer, the unparalleled saxophonist, composer and musician, North Carolina native John Coltrane. To hear it (and more on Coltrane), press PLAY:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website. Full transcript below:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Sunday, April 3rd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Today, we offer a quote from jazz legend and pioneer, the unparalleled saxophonist, composer and musician, John Coltrane:

“That’s what music is to me—it’s just another way of saying this is a big, beautiful universe we live in, that’s been given to us, and here’s an example of just how magnificent and encompassing it is.”

It makes complete poetic sense that the name of the band John Coltrane played in while enlisted in the U.S. Navy was the Melody Masters.

With Johnny Hodges and Dexter Gordon as musical heroes and from a young age in thrall to big band music and its emerging successor, bebop, a young Coltrane dedicated himself to hours upon hours upon hours of practice, gigging whenever and wherever he could, and learning from whoever he could learn from.

Coltrane mastered and some even say transcended what was understood or known about the structure and composition of jazz music in the 1950s and 60s. After stints working with and learning from Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman, among others, Coltrane began creating and recording with his own band.

Not only could Coltrane reimagine, reinvigorate and repopularize standards such as My Favorite Things, he composed the bulk of classic works such as Blue Train, Giant Steps, and his undisputed masterpiece recorded one day in 1965, A Love Supreme.

Coltrane passed in 1967 but his music and legacy live on.

In 1995, the United States Postal Service created a commemorative John Coltrane postage stamp and in 1997, the Grammys honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, the National Endowment for the Arts chose “My Favorite Things” for its list of 360 Songs of the Century, and in 2007, Coltrane was awarded a Pulitzer Prize as a Special Citation for a lifetime of innovative and influential work.

To learn more about Coltrane, check out the official website johncoltrane.com, which contains audio interviews with Coltrane, watch the 2016 documentary Chasing Trane, now streaming on Hulu, read Coltrane on Coltrane: The John Coltrane Interviews edited by Chris DeVito, John Coltrane: His Life and Music by Lewis Porter, visit or support the John and Alice Coltrane Home in New York, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

And of course, perhaps most importantly, buy or stream Coltrane’s music. Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

Excerpts from “Blue Train,” “My Favorite Things” and “A Love Supreme, Pt. 1: Acknowledgement” performed by John Coltrane are included under fair use.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

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Civil Rights Activist Dorothy Height to Be Honored on 2017 U.S. Postage Stamp

By goodblacknews on November 28, 2016
Dorothy Height U.S. postal stamp, 2017.
Dorothy Height U.S. postal stamp, 2017. BLACK HERITAGE: DOROTHY HEIGHT STAMP IMAGE © 2016 UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

article via theroot.com

The U.S. Postal Service just announced civil rights leader Dorothy Height will be honored as the 40th stamp in the Black Heritage Forever series. The painting of Height is based on based on a 2009 photograph shot by Lateef Mangum. Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp.
Height was a tireless activist who dedicated her life to fighting for racial and gender equality. She lived a remarkable life that was in service to her community but African-American women in particular. Although she rarely gained the recognition granted her male contemporaries, she became one of the most influential civil rights leaders of the 20th century. She was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for forty years and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.
In 1990, Height, along with 15 other African Americans, formed the African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom. She served as national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority from 1947 to 1956; was the chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; and an honored guest at the inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, where she was seated on stage.
Height is the 15th African American woman to appear in the series. The stamp will be available in 2017.
To read full article, go to: http://www.theroot.com/blog/the-grapevine/dorothy-height-to-be-honored-on-2017-u-s-postage-stamp/

Maya Angelou Honored with Forever Stamp

By goodblacknews on February 23, 2015

(File: Image)On Monday, Feb. 23, the United States Postal Service announced that writer, actress and poet Maya Angelou will be honored with a Forever Stamp.

Though Angelou died last year at the age of 86, she remains an icon and inspiration because of her life of advocacy and her countless contributions to society. Her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is one of her most acclaimed works. It tells the story of her life in the Jim Crow South.
The Postal Service plans to preview the stamp and provide details on the date and location of the first day of issue ceremony at a later time. Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan stated, “Maya Angelou inspired our nation through a life of advocacy and through her many contributions to the written and spoken word. Her wide-ranging achievements as a playwright, poet, memoirist, educator, and advocate for justice and equality enhanced our culture.”
Check out her top 10 works here.
article by Christie Leondis via blackenterprise.com

African-American Aviation Pioneer Charles Alfred Anderson Sr. to Be Honored by U.S. Postal Service

By goodblacknews on March 7, 2014

In a significant move that brings to the forefront African-American aviation pioneers, the first-ever U.S. postal stamp honoring Tuskegee Airmen is due to be issued this month.  The definitive stamp, which immortalizes aviation trailblazer Charles Alfred Anderson, Sr., goes on sale nationwide March 13.
The 70-cent, First-Class Mail, two-ounce rate stamp, by artist and illustrator Sterling Hundley, will be unveiled next Thursday at a dedication ceremony at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.
It is part of the Distinguished Americans series, which since 2000 has honored people such as actor José Ferrer, athlete Wilma Rudolph, and scientist Jonas Salk. The Chief Anderson stamp is the fifteenth in the series.
C. Alfred “Chief” Anderson, also known as the “father of black aviation” was selected because he was “a pioneer in aviation who played a crucial role during World War II in training the nation’s first black military pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen,” says USPS regional spokesman Ray V. Daiutolo Sr.
In fact, when Anderson earned his air transport license in 1932, he was the only black American in the country qualified to serve as a flight instructor or to fly commercially. Later he because the first-ever American to successfully land an airplane in the Bahamas.

The First 5 African-Americans to be Featured on U.S. Stamps

By goodblacknews on February 5, 2013

Many wonder who were the first group of African-Americans to get their own stamp.

It’s no secret that African-Americans have contributed to the development of the United States; more than we are given credit for. However, most of the ones who have been acknowledged for their work in America have been honored with their very on U.S., postage stamp.
While we know Harriett Tubman and other famous African-Americans have their pictures on stamps, many wonder who were the first group of African-Americans to get their own stamp.
Check out the list below to find out:
1. Booker T. Washington
Born of slaves, Booker T. Washington worked his way through Hampton Institute and Wayland Seminary. By the age of 25, he was named the president of the Tuskegee Institute. Washington was known for being one of the best orators of his time who used his oration skills to be the voice for African-Americans. He also helped develop 5,000 small schools to educate African-Americans throughout the south.
Washington was awarded with a 10 cent stamp in 1940. The U.S. Postal Service invited the pubic for recommendations and Booker T. Washington’s name was repeatedly submitted. Him receiving a 10 cent stamp was an honor in itself because most of the other African-Americans featured were relegated to the stamps worth a penny or two.
2. George Washington Carver
As one of the most famous African-Americans of his time, George Washington Carver became known as “The Peanut Man” due to his extensive work trying to explain the positive effect peanuts could have on the southern farming industry. After being invited by Booker T. Washington to become the Director of Agriculture at Tuskegee Institute, Carver continued his work in botany and agriculture until the day he died in 1934.
George Washington Carver was commemorated with a three cent stamp in 1948. He was picked to receive a stamp for his work in science and how his work with the peanut and sweet potato industry helped farming continue to succeed when most thought the farming industry was on its last legs.

Rosa Parks' Stamp on American History

By goodblacknews on February 4, 2013

George Bridges/Getty Images
Today, to honor the Feb. 4 centennial of the birth of Rosa Parks, the United States Postal Service has issued a Rosa Parks stamp. Last year, a stone carving of Parks was added to the National Cathedral. In 2005, she became the first woman and second African American to lie in honor in the nation’s Capitol and, through a special act of Congress, a statue of her was ordered placed in the Capitol.
Yet these tributes to Rosa Parks rest on a narrow and distorted vision of her legacy. As the story goes, a quiet Montgomery, Ala., seamstress with a single act challenged Southern segregation, catapulted a young Martin Luther King Jr. into national leadership and ushered in the modern civil rights movement. Parks’ memorialization promotes an improbable children’s story of social change — one not-angry woman sat down, the country was galvanized and structural racism was vanquished.
This fable diminishes the extensive history of collective action against racial injustice and underestimates the widespread opposition to the black freedom movement, which for decades treated Parks’ political activities as “un-American.” Most important, it skips over the enduring scourge of racial inequality in American society — a reality that Parks continued to highlight and challenge — and serves contemporary political interests that treat racial injustice as a thing of the past.