Black history through the mail.

• Author: Slade, Stephanie
• Position: Exhibit at National Postal Museum - Briefly Noted - Brief article

The goal of "Freedom Just Around the Corner" is to trace, through stamps and mail, the story of "black America" from the Civil War through the civil rights era. That's an ambitious undertaking, especially considering the exhibit's size--it comprises two tiny rooms within the cavernous marble National Postal Museum.

Yet it manages. A focus is the Black Heritage series of stamps, which feature such African-Americans as Harriet Tubman and Thurgood Marshall. More interesting are the letters and envelopes. One was scrawled with "Sent girl Susan"; signage explains that the slave probably...