No Churches for Judas and Pilate

Richard B. Martin on the 1960 Jefferson Davis Postage Stamp Proposal


In 1960, a proposal was put forward to issue a postage stamp honoring CSA president Jefferson Davis. The New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA) published a sharply critical response by local Episcopalian priest (and future bishop) Rev. Dr. Richard B. Martin.

Martin began by pointing out that Davis “wanted slavery everywhere.” Even before Secession, he wrote, as a freshman senator, Davis “fought to have all of the territories opened to slavery.”[1] According to Martin, Davis was also a “man of severe blunders” and “was not a good judge of men and was constantly hampered by blunders in handling people.”[2] Overall, he wrote, “Davis was a man controlled by strong pride and prejudice.”[3]

Martin went on to discuss Davis’s treason—his being “twice indicted” but never convicted. “After General Lee,” the article asserted, “Jeff Davis is probably the second idiot in the minds of political leaders in the South.”[4] Martin also expressed his frustration with the various “commemorative Davis markers and monuments in several states and numerous cities across the South.”[5] Martin’s concluding line expressed his deep hostility to Confederate commemoration, whether in monumental or postage stamp form: “In the drama of the crucifixion of the Carpenter of Nazareth,” he observed, “there are names like Judas and Pontius Pilate, but we don’t bother to name churches in their memory.”

Justin Seward



Please cite as:


Seward, Justin. “No Churches for Judas and Pilate: Richard B. Martin on the 1960 Jefferson Davis Postage Stamp Proposal.” False Image of History: Perspectives on Confederate Commemoration from the Black Press (online). Fall 2024 Edition. Schaefer, Donovan O., ed. URL = https://falseimage.pennds.org/essay/davis-stamp/.



References

Martin, Richard B. “Jeff Davis’ Picture On U.S. Postage Stamps?” New Journal and Guide, June 18, 1960, 8.

  1. Martin, Richard B., “Jeff Davis’ Picture On U.S. Postage Stamps?” ↩︎

  2. Martin, Richard B., “Jeff Davis’ Picture On U.S. Postage Stamps?” ↩︎

  3. Martin, Richard B., “Jeff Davis’ Picture On U.S. Postage Stamps?” ↩︎

  4. Martin, Richard B., “Jeff Davis’ Picture On U.S. Postage Stamps?” ↩︎

  5. Martin, Richard B., “Jeff Davis’ Picture On U.S. Postage Stamps?” ↩︎