If you’ve never heard of the Ebony Society of Philatelic Events and Reflections, you are not alone. Not until it was brought to my attention by Harlem resident Mani Gilyard was I aware of an organization of African-American stamp collectors. Gilyard, the immediate past president of ESPER, made sure I had a number of Reflections, the group’s publication, and one of them was particularly interesting.
In a recent conversation with Gilyard, who I’ve known for years, we discussed some of the oldest stamps with an African-American image. He said there was one of Booker T. Washington, a 10 cent stamp that was issued in 1940, though it wasn’t of much value.
Among the copies of Reflections he gave me was one in which Don Neal wrote about the Black connection to Civil War stamps. He cited three Black sailors who had distinguished themselves in battle and were the recipients of Congressional Medal of Honors. One of them was Landsman John Henry Lawson. A landsman, Neal noted, was the lowest rank of the U.S. Navy, and given to recruits with little or no experience at sea. They performed menial, unskilled work aboard ships. Such were Lawson’s duties aboard the USS Hartford on Aug. 5, 1864, during an engagement of successful attacks against Fort Morgan in the Mobile Bay.
“Wounded in the leg,” Neal wrote of Lawson, quoting from the official citation, “and thrown violently against the side of the ship when an enemy shell killed or wounded the six-man crew as the shell whipped on the berth deck.
“Lawson, upon regaining his composure, promptly returned to his station and, although urged to go below for treatment, steadfastly continued his duties throughout the remainder of the action.” It was during his battle that Admiral David Farragut, the commander of the ship, shouted his famous phrase, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
Neal doesn’t provide much detail about Lawson’s life, but information about him and his legacy are available at the U.S. Navy database and many publications that offer extensive coverage of Black veterans.
Born June 16, 1837, in Pennsylvania, Lawson joined the Navy while living in New York City in 1863. He was able to enlist following President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. After being discharged from the Navy, he returned to the Philadelphia area, where he became a devout family man, earning his living as a vendor. Some historians, including the eminent W.E.B. Du Bois, often categorized vendors as hucksters, a rather pejorative term for a less than honorable dealer. In his classic study “The Philadelphia Negro,” Du Bois listed a total of 37 hucksters in the city. Their number was fourth on the list of occupations in the city at that time, trailing only janitors, laundrymen, construction workers or kalsominers and cigar makers.
Lawson died in Philadelphia on May 3, 1919. Many members of his extended family resided in Camden, N.J., and several of them assembled to commemorate his life in 2004 at Mount Peace Cemetery in Lawnside, N.J. They had come to dedicate a new burial spot and tombstone for Lawson. His original gravesite is not known since a fire destroyed burial records and cemetery maps, and his tombstone sank and what remained was unreadable.
A retired educator and a member of the cemetery’s board of trustees, Bryson C. Armstead Sr. was chiefly responsible for raising the money and campaigning for Lawson’s rededication event—an action he had done for other veterans buried at the site. Lawson’s granddaughter was among those at the event. She headed the list of numerous great-great-great grandchildren.
We should also note the three other heroes and Medal of Honor awardees along with Lawson in 1864. All three were briefly discussed by Neal. Landsman William Brown (1836-1896) was aboard the U.S.S. Brooklyn during the Battle of Mobile Bay. He was stationed close to the explosion of a shell that hit the ship, but Brown stayed at his post in the powder division. In the end, Brown and his crew were successful and helped to damage and destroy batteries at Fort Morgan as well as gain the surrender of the rebel ram ship the C.S.S. Tennessee.
Wilson Brown was a landsman aboard the U.S.S. Hartford, fighting alongside Lawson, he resumed his duties after regaining consciousness. Engineer’s cook James Mifflin was, like William Brown, aboard the U.S.S. Brooklyn when it was hit by enemy fire. The courage he displayed was very similar to that of his predecessors here, bravely manning his station and helping to accomplish their mission.
Few books on the Civil War have devoted much attention to the role of the U.S. Navy in bringing about the Union victory, and even less about the Black seamen who, as exemplified by the four mentioned here, were just as courageous as their fellow soldiers on the ground.
Something more has been said about ESPER, and perhaps as they prepare for their annual conference, we can give them some play, just as we need to remember those gallant warriors who braved the battles at sea. Here’s a comment from ESPER’s current president, Walter Faison: “How can we fulfill ESPER’s mission? The first step is to know what our mission is. 1) To promote interest in the collection of philatelic material depicting the African Diaspora. 2) To introduce African-Americans to the hobby of philately and to enhance their collecting experience.” He added that their mission was also to provide educational scholarships and to lecture on stamp collecting, especially with the younger generation.
Let us hope that we’ve fulfilled a portion of ESPER’s mission.