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Getting civil rights right.

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.

The U-S Postal Service says it has issued three Civil Rights-related issues this year,
but it depends on how you count.

There's no question the stamp honoring Rosa Parks, a leader of the Montgomery bus boycott,
is a civil rights issue. This year marks the centennial of her birth.

And none about the stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

The third stamp the Postal Service counts, though, is the 150th anniversary of the
Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in the Confederate states, but did
nothing for free blacks elsewhere.

And there's no mention of this year's Althea Gibson stamp, the latest in the Black
Heritage series. Just a few years after the bus boycott and Jackie Robinson's entry into
Major League Baseball, Gibson broke the color barrier in tennis by winning the U-S and
Wimbledon titles -- twice! ... paving the way for other African-American athletes.

I'm Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting,
visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

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