Ernest J. Gaines. 2023

The 46th stamp in the Black Heritage series honors author Ernest J. Gaines (1933-2019). Best known for such novels as TheAutobiography of Miss vane Pitman and A Lesson Before Dving. Gaines drew from his childhood as the son of sharecroppers on aouisiana plantation to explore the untold stories of rural African Americans.

The stamp art is an oil painting of Gaines based on a 2001 photograph.Ermest J. Gaines was born on River Lake Plantation in the town of Oscar just outside New Roads. Louisiana. where his family hadived in the former slave quarter for five generations. He moved to California in 1948. but for decades afterward. his fiction reflecteda deep and unbreakable connection to the rural Louisiana of his youth.