USPS "To Form A More Perfect Union" Souvenir Sheet

USPS on 30 August 2005 issued 10 First Day Cover stamps to mark the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The set was called "To Form A More Perfect Union" which alludes to the opening preamble of the U.S. Constitution. The stamps traced the history of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

This souvenir sheet of 37-cent stamps "To Form a More Perfect Union" featured ten designs portraying key events in the Civil Rights Movement and various postmark locations where each occurred: the 1948 Executive Order 9981, 1960 Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, 1955 Montgomery (Alabama) Bus Boycott, 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1963 March on Washington, 1965 Selma (Alabama) March, 1954 Brown v. Board of Education, 1961 Freedom Riders, 1957 Little Rock (Arkansas) Nine, and 1965 Voting Rights Act.

This issue recognised the courage and achievements of the men and women who fought for equal rights during the years of the Civil Rights movement. The issue presented an artistic representation of several pivotal events from the 1948 Executive Order ending segregation in the military to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland designed the stamps.

Source: USPS