Six-Grader Strives to Get Forgotten Slave on Stamp

Ebony.com reports,"An eager crowd of parents and children filed into the atrium of the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. recently for the Museum’s African American History Month Family Day. Though there were many activities available for kids that day, many in the crowd were there for one reason: to hear Jackson L. Davis, V., speak. This phenomenal twelve-year-old boy was invited to speak at the Museum because of the national campaign he launched to get York – the slave who worked alongside Lewis and Clark on the first transcontinental expedition – honored with a commemorative stamp."

Reporter Brooke Obie pens, "And though Lewis, Clark, and Sacagawea have been posthumously acknowledged with stamps and a coin for their work, Davis was upset to learn that York, the only African American on the expedition, has not yet been honored with a stamp like the others."

According to the article, " Davis submitted a proposal to the United States Postal Service Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee for York to be considered for a 2013 Black Heritage Stamp.  He also wrote to every living American president to raise awareness of his campaign, and so far has received letters of support from President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, his own congressman, Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. , the president of the National Urban League, Marc Morial, and many other leaders. The York stamp is now under consideration by the Committee."

The 12-year-old is the great-grandson of a postal worker.

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