Editor’s note: This article originally appeared as part of Friday’s A.M. ATL newsletter.
Federal officials unveiled a new stamp honoring late Georgia Congressman John Lewis this week. Available for sale next month, it’s a worthy tribute to a civil rights hero and one of our country’s most revered political leaders.
It also got us thinking: How many other people with Peach State ties found a spotlight on postage?
As it turns out, more than a few.
Civil rights icon the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. twice received the honor: in 1979 and 1999.
As far as athletes go, there’s Ty Cobb (the surly baseball player known as “The Georgia Peach”), Bobby Jones (the golfer and acclaimed course designer buried at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta) and Jackie Robinson (the barrier-breaker born down in Cairo). The boxer Sugar Ray Robinson hailed from Ailey, a town west of Statesboro that even today has a population of just a few hundred people.
James Edward Oglethorpe, the colonial founder of Georgia, garnered a stamp. So, too, did Abraham Baldwin, a Founding Father who helped start the University of Georgia.
There’s also Casimir Pulaski, a Polish-born military leader who earned honorary Peach State status because he died defending Savannah during the Revolutionary War.
On the literary side, we’ve got Margaret Mitchell of “Gone With the Wind” fame and Flannery O’Connor, the Milledgeville native known for her short stories and novels.
We’ll close with music legend Ray Charles, who always had Georgia on his mind because of his Albany roots. The postal service immortalized him in 2013.
This, of course, is not an exhaustive list. So let me hear from you if I omitted your favorite.
I’m also curious: Who do you think should be the next Georgian to grace a postage stamp?
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