August 16, 1963: In a historic moment for American art and Black achievement, television and advertising executive George Olden became the first Black person to design a United States postage stamp. The stamp commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the pivotal Civil War-era document that legally freed enslaved Black Americans in the Confederacy.

Olden’s design—a powerful image of a broken chain set against a bold blue background—was carefully chosen to symbolize liberation from bondage and progress toward freedom. The stamp’s unveiling on August 16, 1963, marked not only a celebration of emancipation but also a breakthrough moment for Black creatives in a field that had long excluded their perspectives.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1920, Olden came from a f

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