The U.S. Postal Service will mark Hispanic Heritage month by celebrating one of the most influential civil-rights cases you never heard of with a new stamp.
The new Mendez vs. Westminster 41-cent stamp was issued Sept. 14 to commemorate Mendez et al. vs. Westminster School District et al. — a case that pre-dated Brown vs. Board of Education to end segregation in California schools.
The Denver post office will hold an event at 1:30 p.m. Friday to mark Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 through Oct. 15) and the new stamp at the Museo de Las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive, in Denver. The public is invited, and refreshments will be served. All who attend the event will get free admission to view the Museo’s current exhibits.
Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first African-American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, was one of the authors of a brief submitted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the California case.
The brief later served as a model in Brown vs. Board of Education, a decision that led to desegregation in the nation’s schools. The Mendez case was selected to be commemorated on a stamp “because it was a significant case, and it was the 60th anniversary of the case,” said post office spokesman Al DeSarro.
A Postal Service citizens advisory committee, with members from all walks of society, recommended that the case be commemorated in a stamp, DeSarro said.
“Anybody can suggest a stamp, and there are thousands of suggestions each year. The people on the committee pore over all the suggestions,” DeSarro said.
Mexican artist Raphael Lopez, who has a studio in San Diego, illustrated the stamp. The image “masterfully integrated the look of the Mexican muralists with the idea of looking forward to the light,” Ethel Kessler, stamp art director, said in a release.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
