ALTON (AP) – Two federal lawmakers from Illinois are pushing for a postage stamp commemorating the life of Elijah Lovejoy, a famed journalist and abolitionist from southwestern Illinois.
In recognition of February as Black History Month, Sen. Roland Burris and Rep. Jerry Costello are backing a congressional resolution seeking the stamp issuance honoring Elijah Lovejoy.
Lovejoy was the St. Louis Observer’s editor whose editorials denounced slavery and supported emancipation decades before the Civil War.
Abolition opponents forced Lovejoy out of St. Louis, and he settled in Alton.
While he was editor of that Mississippi River city’s Alton Observer, pro-slavery groups three times destroyed Lovejoy’s printing press.
He was slain by a pro-slavery mob in 1837.
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