John W. Curry has been credited as the first African-American letter carrier working for the United States Post Office. He was active in the National Association of Letter Carriers, and his death in 1899 was noted in its magazine, The Postal Record. He was employed in the Washington, DC post office in 1867.The History and Experience of African Americans in America's Postal Service National Postal Museum by Deanna Boyd and Kendra ChenRacism in the Nation's Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson's America S. Yellin; UNC Press Books, Apr 22, 2013
The Washington Bee in 1899 praised him as doing much "to open the way for admission of other colored carriers."African-American Postal Workers in the 19th Century United States Postal ServiceThe Paradoxes of Diversity: Race, Class, and Gender Relations in a Federal Bureaucracy ProQuest; 2006, page 53
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