U.S. #4332

2012 45¢ Fruited Plains

Flags of Our Nation 

Issue Date: August 16, 2012

City: Sacramento, CA

Quantity: 25,000,000

Printed By: American Packaging Corp for Sennett Security Products

Printing Method: Photogravure

Color: Multicolored

Flags of Our Nation, Set VI:  2012 marks the sixth and final set of stamps in the series.  The state and territory flags reflect the history of each region they represent.  The uniqueness of each state flag in the series reflects the diversity of the United States and its territories.  

Katherine Lee Bates stood atop Pikes Peak in 1893 and was inspired to write a poem she called “America.”  Over a decade later, her poem was paired with the music of Samuel Ward and became the popular song “America the Beautiful.”  

Some have suggested it should be our country’s national anthem, but The Star-Spangled Banner continues to hold that place of honor.  “America the Beautiful” describes the wonders of our vast and diverse nation and has been sung by world-renowned artists over the years.

Segregation was still common in the U.S. in the 1930s.  African-American opera singer Marian Anderson had found great success in Europe, and her talent was beginning to be recognized in the U.S.  When she was forbidden to sing in Constitution Hall, owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution, President Franklin Roosevelt and DAR member and First Lady Eleanor arranged an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  On Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, Anderson stirred the hearts of over 75,000 people when she sang “America the Beautiful.”  Radio listeners in “alabaster cities” and across “the fruited plains” shared in that historic moment.