IV 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 33 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States 

Postal Service should issue a commemorative stamp honoring the life 

of Maya Angelou. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 14, 2015 

Mrs. BEATTY submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 

the United States Postal Service should issue a commemorative stamp honoring the life of Maya Angelou. 

Whereas Dr. Maya Angelou, was born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, and raised 

in Arkansas; 

Whereas Maya Angelou was a prominent and celebrated author, poet, educator, producer, actress, filmmaker, and 

civil rights activist; 

Whereas hailed for her talents as a performing artist at an 

early age, Maya Angelou toured Europe with a production of the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess in 1955 and 

released her first album in 1957; 


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•HRES 33 IH 

Whereas Maya Angelou was active in the civil rights movement and was a personal friend of both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X; 

Whereas Maya Angelou served as a leader of the Southern 

Christian Leadership Conference during the civil rights 

movement; 

Whereas in 1969, Maya Angelou wrote the autobiography ‘‘I 

Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’’, which catapulted her 

to international acclaim for its vivid and honest depiction 

of the experience of Black women in the Jim Crow era; 

Whereas Maya Angelou has published more than 30 best-selling titles, including her collection of poems, ‘‘Just Give 

Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie’’, which earned 

her a Pulitzer Prize nomination; 

Whereas Maya Angelou wrote the screenplay and composed 

the score for the 1972 film ‘‘Georgia, Georgia’’; her 

script, the first by an African-American woman to be 

filmed; 

Whereas Maya Angelou served in various capacities to several 

Presidents of the United States, including President Gerald Ford, who appointed her to the American Revolution 

Bicentennial Commission, and President Jimmy Carter, 

who appointed her to serve on the Presidential Commission for the International Year of the Woman; 

Whereas Maya Angelou was the first African-American to 

serve as an Inaugural Poet, authoring and reciting the 

poem ‘‘On the Pulse of Morning’’ in 1993; 

Whereas Maya Angelou was a trailblazer in literature and poetry who bravely explored the ways in which socially 

marginalizing forces affected African-American women; 


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•HRES 33 IH 

Whereas Maya Angelou was honored with the Presidential 

Medal of Freedom in 2011, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, 

and the National Medal of Arts in 2000 for her exceptional contributions to American culture as an author 

and poet; 

Whereas Maya Angelou passed away on May 28, 2014, in her 

North Carolina home at age 86, leaving behind a legacy 

of literacy achievement and an indelible mark on the 

movement for civil rights; and 

Whereas issuing a postage stamp honoring Maya Angelou is 

fitting and proper: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that— 

3 (1) the Postmaster General should issue a com4 memorative postage stamp honoring Maya Angelou; 

5 and 

6 (2) such stamp should— 

7 (A) be issued in the denomination used for 

8 first-class mail up to 1 ounce in weight; 

9 (B) bear such illustration or picture as the 

10 Postmaster General determines; and 

11 (C) be placed in sale at such time and for 

12 such period as the Postmaster General deter13 mines. 

Æ 


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