John Lewis Stamps,

With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates the life and legacy of civilrights leader and congressman dohn Lewis(1940-2020). Devoted to equality and justice for all Americans, Lewis spent more than 30 years in Congress steadfastlydefending and building on key civil rights gains that he had helped achieve in the 1960s. Even in the face of hatred andviolence, as well as some 45 arrests, Lewis remained resolute in his commitment to what he liked to call "good trouble.The stamp features a photograph of Lewis taken by Marco Grob on assignment for the August 26, 2013, issue of Timemagazine. The selvage showcases a photograph of Lewis taken by Steve Schapiro in 1963 outside a workshop aboutnonviolent protest in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

A key figure in some of the most pivotal moments of the civil rights movement, Lewis was the face of the Nashville StudentMovement, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an original Freedom Rider, and one of the keynotespeakers at the 1963 March on Washington. He served as executive director of the Voter Education Project; as associatedirector of ACTlON, the federal volunteer agency that oversaw the Peace Corps and VlSTA: and as a member of the AtlantaCity Council. He was also the best-seling author of several books, including the March comic book seres and the inspiringautobiography, Walking with the Wind.

The defining moment of Lewis's life occurred on Sunday, March 7, 1965. Lewis and about 600 others intended to march fromSelma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery, 50 miles away, in support of equal voting rights. As he and the othermarchers reached the crest of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma that day, they saw on the other side what Lewis laterdescribed as a “sea of blue"-Alabama state troopers, who ordered them to disperse. instead. the demonstrators knelt inprayer. Through clouds of tear gas, the troopers advanced, trampling the marchers under horses and hitting them withnightsticks. Lewis, who was struck over the head and repeatedly beaten, crumpled to the ground with a fractured skul. Thatday became known as “Bloody Sunday.

Broadcast on televisions nationwide. the brutal response to what was a peaceful, nonviolent demonstration helped aalvanizepublic opposition to racial segregation. just a week after Bloody Sunday, President Lyndon B. johnson introduced the votingRights Act during a joint session of Congress. The landmark legislation, which strengthened the federal government's abilityto prevent state and local governments from denying citizens the right to vote because of race, was signed into law onAugust 6.