This Series of 27 Stamps initiated by the USPS in 1978, recognizes the achievements of prominent African Americans. Over the last 25 years, the Black Heritage Series has featured outstanding individuals such as Jackie Robinson, Sojourner Truth, and Mary McLeod Bethune, who helped shape American culture through their involvement in science, technology, education, and social action.

The idea for the series was born at a Queens County, NY Bicentennial meeting in the Queens Central Library in 1975, with a proposal by Clarence L. Irving, chairman and founder of the Black American Heritage Foundation. In 1976 he drafted a proposal and, working with Prof. Parmet, former State Senator Karen Burstein, and Mrs. Shulman, he presented the plan to Rep. Joseph Addabbo, a member of the House appropriations subcommittee dealing with the Postal Service. The initiative was part of the activities revolving around the bicentennial celebration of the United States. Two years later, the US Postal Service created a completely new series commemorating Black Americans, with Harriet Tubman of the famous Underground Railroad chosen as the first historical figure to start the "Black Heritage USA Series." Each year another stamp appears in this commemorative series. The 25th stamp in this series honors Langston Hughes. The "First Day Ceremony" was held at the Schomberg Center for Research in New York, New York on February 1, 2002. Harriet Tubman was the first African American woman to appear on a U.S. postage stamp. The first African American ever honored on a U.S. postage stamp was Booker T. Washington in 1940 as a part of the "Famous Americans Series." 

Today, what started at the Queens Library 26 years ago has become a stamp series sought after by collectors worldwide. The first stamps were illustrated in color, however beginning in 1996 with the 32¢ Ernest E. Just stamp, the designs all have been based on a monochromatic photograph as the principal design element with subtle coloring added.

The first stamp in the Black Heritage series was  designed by former Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee member Jerry Pinkney of Croton-on-Hudson, NY. He also designed stamps featuring Benjamin Banneker, Martin Luther King Jr., Scott Joplin, Jackie Robinson, Sojourner Truth, Carter G. Woodson, Whitney Moore Young, and Mary McLeod Bethune.

Other Black Heritage stamp Designers are Higgins Bond formerly of Teaneck, NJ, and Thomas Blackshear II of Novato, CA

Higgins Bonds a versatile artist whose focus shifted from psychology to art in college, has credits ranging from portraits to textbook illustration. She also produces a wealth of highly praised artwork for top national corporations. She designed the W.E.B. Du Bois and Jan Matzeliger stamps.

Thomas Blackshear illustrator and sculptor , designed stamps honoring Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable, A. Philip Randolph, Ida B. Wells and James Weldon Johnson in the Black Heritage Stamps series. Over the last ten years his other stamp illustrations included Joe Louis, Jelly Roll Morton and Thelonious Monk for the Jazz Series. He also illustrated stamps honoring James Cagney, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Beau Geste and Stagecoach for the Classic Hollywood Movies series, and stamps for Classic Movie Monsters. In 1991 he was commissioned by the United States Postal Service to illustrate a book called “I Have A Dream," (A Collection of Black Americans on U.S. Postage Stamps). Today this is a sought after collectable item in the philatelic world.