The 46th stamp in the Black Heritage series for the USPS honors author Ernest J. Gaines (1933-2019). Best known for such novels as ‘The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman’ and ‘A Lesson Before Dying‘, Gaines drew from his childhood as the son of sharecroppers on a Louisiana plantation to explore the untold stories of rural African Americans.
The Stamp is being issued as a Forever Stamp in panes of 20 for Black History Month. By the way, the cost of stamps just went up!
Mike Ryan designed this stamp with art by Robert Peterson, who we know well from his recent solo exhibition, ‘When You See Them, You See Me’ at Claire Oliver Gallery in the Fall of 2022
Along these same lines, the current exhibition at Claire Oliver Gallery, Remains by artist Adebunmi Gbadebo, explores her ancestral origins centered on the plantation on which her forebears were enslaved and currently buried in Fort Motte, South Carolina, on view to March 11, 2023.