Forever stamp to honor Rep. John Lewis, civil rights activist, in 2023

Rep. John Lewis, the late civil rights leader and Georgia Democrat, will be portrayed on a U.S. commemorative postage stamp in 2023, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday.

The forever stamp, priced at the 1-ounce first-class postage rate and always valid regardless of future rate hikes, will show Mr. Lewis in 2013 from a photograph taken by Marco Grob, who was on assignment for Time magazine.

The margin of the stamp pane will show a 1963 photo of Mr. Lewis standing outside a workshop on nonviolent protests in Clarksdale, Mississippi, by photographer Steve Schapiro.

“Devoted to equality and justice for all Americans, Lewis spent more than 30 years in Congress steadfastly defending and building on key civil rights gains that he had helped achieve in the 1960s,” the postal agency said in announcing the commemoration. “Even in the face of hatred and violence, as well as some 45 arrests, Lewis remained resolute in his commitment to what he liked to call ‘good trouble.’”

No date or place has been announced for the formal issuance of the stamp, but Feb. 21 is Mr. Lewis’ birthday. Born in Pike County, Alabama, in 1940, he was a member of the Atlanta City Council from 1982 to 1985 and was first elected to Congress in 1986.

Mr. Lewis spent 33 years in the House of Representatives, the last 17 as senior chief deputy whip for Democrats there. In 2011, President Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

Following his death from pancreatic cancer on July 17, 2020, the Fairfax County School Board said it would rename Robert E. Lee High School after Mr. Lewis.