President Franklin D. Roosevelt Moonlights as Stamp Designer

"I owe my life to my hobbies -- especially stamp collecting." (President Franklin D. Roosevelt)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt examines a stamp in his collection courtesy http://postalmuseum.si.edu/deliveringhope/highlights.html.

During the Great Depression, with thousands of Americans out of work, the United States Post Office tried to do its part to keep moral high.  Post Master James Farley brainstormed with President Roosevelt to create a series of uplifting stamps to divert the public's attention from the nation's plight.  Roosevelt even presented numerous sketches for Farley's consideration.  "Never again did a president and post master general share such a close relationship..." (http://postalmuseum.si.edu/deliveringhope/exhibition_p3.html) 

One of the Roosevelt's designs, approved by the U.S. Post Office in 1933, was the Byrd Antarctic Expedition II, an effort to promote Admiral Byrd's second expedition to the Antarctic courtesy http://postalmuseum.si.edu/deliveringhope/object_0_209045_9.html#1.

Another Roosevelt sketch accepted was his Mothers of America design of 1934 courtesy

http://postalmuseum.si.edu/deliveringhope/object_0_209045_11.html#1.

Suffragette Susan B. Anthony was commemorated in a sketch by Roosevelt in 1936 courtesy http://postalmuseum.si.edu/deliveringhope/object_0_209045_15.html#1.

Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America, is featured on a 1937 stamp marking the 350th anniversary of Roanoke, Virginia courtesy http://postalmuseum.si.edu/deliveringhope/object_0_209045_18.html#1.

 

The 1938 Eagle Airmail Stamp was used to help distinguish airmail from regular mail courtesy http://postalmuseum.si.edu/deliveringhope/object_0_209045_13.html#1.

This 1939 stamp marks the 50th anniversary of statehood for Washington, Montana, North Dakota & South Dakota courtesy http://postalmuseum.si.edu/deliveringhope/object_0_209045_12.html#1.

Desegregating Public Schools

U.S. Post Office issued a stamp in 1999 commemorating the desegregation of schools courtesy https://www.pinterest.com/pin/71353975320065661/.

Brown vs Board of Education marked the desegregation of public elementary schools in the United States.  In 1951, Oliver Brown, along with twelve other parents, filed a lawsuit in a Kansas court fighting the "separate but equal" status of American education.  While he lost the case, in 1954, he filed another suit with the Supreme Court and won.  His daughter Linda was able to attend a white school for the first time (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/05/brown-vs-board-of-education.html).

In 1957, the cause was further advanced by the integration of Little Rock High by nine brave black students.  A famous photograph showed a student named Ruby, her books in one arm, walking to school surrounded by white parents shooting daggers from their eyes and hate from their lips (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/09/little-rock-nine.html).

It seemed the integration of American public schools was complete.  However, that was just the beginning.  Many whites protested by fleeing to the suburbs, leaving the blacks in the city core schools.  In the 1970's, the situation reached a crisis point in Boston where they invoked forced bussing, a move that both whites and blacks protested against (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2014/09/violence-over-forced-busing-in-boston.html).

In the 1990's, my sister-in-law, Ingrid, taught in a North Carolina high school where the majority of the students were black or Hispanic.  The educational system seemed to be letting them down:  some of her Grade 9 and 10 students could barely read.

Today, the schools in Cleveland, Mississippi remain largely segregated.  D.M. Smith Middle school is predominantly black while Margaret Green Junior High School is almost completely white.  Black students attend the virtually all black East Side High while white students attend the overwhlemingly white Cleveland High.  U.S. District Judge Debra Brown has ordered that the Cleveland school board present a timeline for integration.  Former board member Jim Tims says that integration will not be well received by everyone:  "If they feel threatened, or for some reason race bothers them, then they have an option and they're going to leave the schools.  The question is:  Do you want to have 'integration'?  Or do you want to have white flight?" (http://www.inquisitr.com/3105243/cleveland-mississippi-schools-ordered-to-desegregate-after-51-year-court-battle/).

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/17/478389720/after-50-year-legal-struggle-mississippi-school-district-ordered-to-desegregate