Nelson Mandela during a visit to the Freedom Forum in 1993. (Newseum collection)

Remembering Nelson Mandela

He was called Madiba, a clan name that was used as a term of affection.

The world knew him as Nelson Mandela — the charismatic leader of the African National Congress, the first black person elected president of South Africa, and one of the most revered leaders in the world.

Mandela died Dec. 5, 2013. He was 95.

Mandela was born in the Transkei in South Africa on July 18, 1918, a son of the chief of the Thembu tribe. He joined the ANC in 1944 and later battled against the National Party's political system of racial separation, known as apartheid. Mandela went on trial for treason in 1956, and the ANC was banned in 1960. Mandela was acquitted in 1961, but three years later, he and others were sentenced to life in prison for "sabotage, treason and violent conspiracy."

"Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won," Mandela said in 1961. "The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days."

Mandela's release from prison in 1990 after more than 27 years was a worldwide news event. By then, the chokehold of apartheid was slowly loosening its grip on South Africa's black majority. Almost immediately, Mandela picked up the struggle where he had left off, vowing to forever dismantle the policy of "apartness" that for decades had deemed the country's black majority less than human. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, which he shared with then-South African president F.W. de Klerk.

In July 1993 when he was in the United States to receive the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal, Mandela was the featured guest at the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation that champions the First Amendment as a cornerstone of democracy, and is the main funder of the operations of the Newseum. Mandela, who was running for president of South Africa, spoke about freedom in his country and around the world.

Adam Clayton Powell III, a former vice president of the Freedom Forum who is currently a senior fellow at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy, recalled a private moment before Mandela spoke.

"While we were being seated, the AP ran an update from the CODESA talks announcing they had just announced an election date the following April," Powell said. "So, I introduced him as 'the next president of South Africa.' He broke into a big grin, and then he covered the mic and said, 'No one has ever introduced me that way before.' I then covered my mic and said, 'Get used to it.'"

Few images better captured political change in South Africa than news photographs of South Africans waiting in long lines to vote in 1994 — the first time in the nation's history that the black majority, seven out of 10 people, had been allowed. One of the ballot boxes used in the historic election that Mandela won the presidency is part of the Newseum's permanent collection.

Mandela served one term as president of South Africa. He left office in 1999.

NORAD Tracks Santa

The Newseum is once again proud to be a member of the NORAD Tracks Santa team for 2013!

NORAD Tracks Santa began December 24, 1955, when an incorrect phone number encouraging children to call Santa on Christmas was printed in a local Sears Roebuck and Co. newspaper advertisement. Instead of Santa, the number actually dialed the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Air Operations Center, NORAD's predecessor organization, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, the commander on duty that night, informed callers he was not Santa, but told them he could look on his radar and tell them Santa's location as he made his Yuletide journey across the globe.

From this act of timely kindness emerged a program that today is institutionalized throughout NORAD, which took over operations from CONAD in 1958. Each year since, NORAD has dutifully reported Santa's location on Dec. 24 to millions of children and families across the globe who inquire as to his whereabouts.

• Official NORAD Santa Tracker

Virginia O’Hanlon, c. 1897 (Courtesy James Temple)

Is There a Santa Claus? Yes, Virginia

Editor's Note: "Is There a Santa Claus?" is the most reprinted newspaper editorial in American journalism. In the spirit of that tradition, the Newseum has published the story behind it since 2007. It remains one of our most popular stories online.

American journalism's best-known editorial, a timeless tribute to childhood and the Christmas spirit, marked its 116th anniversary this year.

The editorial was published beneath the headline "Is There a Santa Claus?" in 1897 in the New York Sun, a gray but lively newspaper that began as a penny paper in 1833. The editorial's author was Francis Pharcellus Church, a veteran journalist who was assigned to write a reply to a letter from an 8-year-old named Virginia O'Hanlon.

"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus," Virginia had written. "Papa says 'if you see it in the Sun, it's so.' Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"

"Virginia, your little friends are wrong," Church replied. "They have been afflicted by the skepticism of a skeptical age."

A few sentences later, Church invoked the editorial's most memorable passages: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus."

"Is There a Santa Claus?" was given an obscure place in the Sun, in the third of three columns of editorials on Sept. 21, 1897. It was oddly timed, too — an editorial about Santa Claus appearing in September, three months before Christmas.

But over the years, the editorial became a classic in American journalism, and easily the most memorable item ever published in the Sun. That venerable newspaper folded in January 1950.

The Sun remained a storied name in American journalism, and the name was revived in April 2002 by owners of a new conservative-oriented daily in New York. The resurrected Sun laid claim to its predecessor's legacy, adopting its logo — which proclaimed the Sun "shines for all" — and its elaborate nameplate.

"Yes, Virginia," the Associated Press said of the new newspaper, "there is a New York Sun again."

The new Sun lasted just six, money-losing years in New York's hypercompetitive media market and published its final issue on Sept. 30, 2008. Thus, "Is There a Santa Claus?" outlived two incarnations of its natal newspaper.

So what explains such longevity? Why is the editorial so endlessly appealing?

Several answers offer themselves.

"Is There a Santa Claus?" lives on because it's such a rarity — an all-around cheery story, one without villains or sinister forces.

For many adults, the editorial stirs memories of Christmases past, when they, too, were young believers.

The editorial also offers a connection to a time quite different from ours, a time before jet aircraft, television and the Internet. It is somehow reassuring to know that what was engaging in 1897 remains appealing now.

The editorial lives on as a reminder of the lyrical heights that journalism, on occasion, can reach.

W. Joseph Campbell, a former Newseum scholar, is a tenured professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, including "Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misrepresented Stories in American Journalism" and "The Year That Defined American Journalism: 1897 and the Clash of Paradigms," in which the story of "Is There a Santa Claus?" is told.

• Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
• Special Program: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus"

Newseum Press Pass Membership

Newseum Membership: The Perfect Holiday Gift

For the news junkie or museum lover in your life, a Newseum Press Pass membership makes the perfect holiday gift! Now is a great time to share the many benefits of membership — including unlimited free admission for a year and access to exclusive events — offered at a 20% discount for a limited time. Plus, receive two free guest tickets for each gift membership purchased through Dec. 20.

Membership benefits include:

• Unlimited free admission for a full year
• Priority seating at Newseum programs
• Invitations to special member events
• 10 percent discount in the Newseum Store and Food Section
• 15 percent discount on lunch at The Source by Wolfgang Puck
• Advance notice of cutting-edge programs
• Close-up look at the artifacts and images that made history
• $5 discount on guest tickets (purchased on-site on day of visit)

Purchase your gift memberships online or over the phone at 202/292-6287 by Friday, Dec. 13, to ensure holiday delivery.

Please note the two free guest tickets will be sent from the Membership Department only and cannot be claimed on site.

Offer valid through Dec. 20, 2013.

Three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father's casket. (Courtesy The Associated Press)

50 Years Ago in News History: President Kennedy is Assassinated

On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in a motorcade in downtown Dallas. Kennedy was in the city to mend a feud within the Texas Democratic Party and to rally support for his re-election bid.

At 12:34 p.m. CST, United Press International issued the first bulletin, which signaled a tragic day for the country and an unprecedented day for broadcast news:

"Three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade today in downtown Dallas."

Newspaper reporters and photographers scrambled to cover the story from outside the Texas School Book Depository, where the shots originated, and Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy was rushed to the emergency room. TV journalists raced to landline telephones to relay updates as the story unfolded.

The three major networks at the time, ABC, CBS and NBC — with their four days of non-stop coverage — established television as the primary source for breaking news. Two days after the assassination, about 93 percent of NBC viewers witnessed the shooting of suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald live on their screens. TV cameras focused on every aspect of the tragedy gave Americans an unprecedented opportunity to stay informed and mourn the loss of the country's 35th president.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination, the Newseum will feature exhibits, programs and events that explore media coverage of his presidency, home life and death.

• "Three Shots Were Fired" chronicles the assassination from newspaper field coverage to the live broadcasts of Kennedy's funeral and burial. Never-before-seen artifacts, including Abraham Zapruder's camera, are on display.
• "Creating Camelot" features private images of the Kennedy family from the collection of photographer Jacques Lowe. From 1958 to 1961, Lowe took more than 40,000 photos of the Kennedys' memorable public appearances and unseen private moments.

• An accompanying Newseum-produced film, "A Thousand Days," recounts the youthful glamour the Kennedy family brought to the White House.

The exhibits are open now through Jan. 5, 2014.

• On Nov. 20, Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent for CBS News and moderator of "Face the Nation," and Clint Hill, a former Secret Service agent who was in the presidential motorcade on Nov. 22, 1963, will share their memories of that day. This program is sold out. Follow it on Twitter at #JFK50.
• On Nov. 22, the Newseum will host "JFK Remembrance Day," featuring a number of daylong events. Follow the programs on Facebook and Twitter at #JFKNewseum.

• Assassination of JFK and Kennedy Family History

Washington Ideas Forum

Newseum Hosts Washington Ideas Forum Nov. 13-14

The Newseum is pleased to partner with The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute to host the fifth annual Washington Ideas Forum Nov. 13 and 14, 2013.

Following the bruising government shutdown and the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act, the event will bring together government leaders — from both sides of the aisle — as well as top business and media voices for two days of conversation about the serious challenges facing the country — and the possible paths forward.

Visit the 2013 Washington Ideas Forum online to preview featured speakers for 2013 and watch highlights from 2012. This year’s event will be live streamed for those unable to attend in person. Follow the conversation on Twitter via @Atlantic_LIVE, @AspenInstitute and @Newseum and join in using #IdeasForum.

Free Admission for Veterans at the Newseum

Free Admission for Veterans at the Newseum

This offer has expired.

WASHINGTON — In honor of our nation's armed services, all veterans and active duty personnel will receive free admission for themselves and one guest on Nov. 11, 2013.

Complimentary tickets are available only at the admissions desk. Military ID, another form of military-service credential, or military uniforms are required.

Find out for yourself why everyone is calling the Newseum the best experience Washington, D.C., has to offer. Each of the seven levels in this magnificent building is packed with interactive exhibits that explore how news affects our shared experience of historic moments.

Don't miss "Three Shots Were Fired," an exhibit that examines news coverage of the events following President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

The "Creating Camelot" exhibit showcases former White House photographer Jacques Lowe's intimate, behind-the-scenes images of John and Jacqueline Kennedy and their children.

In the Big Screen Theater, "A Thousand Days" recounts the youthful glamour the Kennedy family brought to the White House.

Like all Newseum tickets, veterans tickets are valid for two consecutive days.

This offer is not valid in conjunction with other discounts. Limit four, same-day discounted tickets per transaction.

Judith Bellas and James McLaughlin of Burke, Va., won tickets to the premiere of National Geographic Channel's "Killing Kennedy" at the Newseum. (Maria Bryk/Newseum)

Red Carpet Evening for Sweepstakes Winners

Two lucky Newseum fans got the red carpet treatment at the Oct. 28 premiere of National Geographic Channel's "Killing Kennedy." Judith Bellas of Burke, Va., was selected as the grand-prize winner of the Newseum's "JFK's DC Sweepstakes," which included two tickets to the premiere of the highly anticipated film about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Bellas and her husband, James McLaughlin, watched the film in the Newseum's Annenberg Theater along with celebrity guests, including stars Rob Lowe, Michelle Trachtenberg and Will Rothhaar; "Killing Kennedy" author and Fox News host Bill O'Reilly; and the film's cast, writer and director.

"We had a wonderful time!" Bellas said.

The sweepstakes prize package also includes a VIP tour of the Newseum's JFK exhibits; two nights at the Monaco Washington, DC; tickets to other top attractions in the nation's capital, including the National Building Museum, International Spy Museum and Madame Tussauds; and tickets for city tours with Big Bus Tours, Bike and Roll and Washington Walks.

If you want to be among the first to learn about future events, contests and other Newseum happenings, subscribe to our e-newsletter, and never miss a scoop.

75 Years Ago in News History: 'War of the Worlds'

Watch video:

• "War of the Worlds" 1938 Radio Broadcast

Seventy five years after actor and director Orson Welles scared the daylights out CBS radio's nighttime listeners with his Halloween eve dramatization of the science-fiction novel "War of the Worlds," the power of the realistic-but-phony radio broadcast of an Earth invasion from Mars still endures.

On Oct. 30, 1938, Welles and fellow actors of The Mercury Theatre on the Air performed the dramatization that was written to sound like news bulletins. Though CBS announced several times that the broadcast was a dramatization, the bulletins sounded so authentic — and the actors' performances so convincing — that thousands of panicked listeners believed Martians had landed in New Jersey.

Ninety-two radio stations carried the drama. When it ended, most of them, as well as newspapers and police departments across the country, were swamped with callers seeking clarification and demanding to know if the world was ending.

"Officials of the electric company received scores of calls urging them to turn off all lights so that the city would be safe from the enemy," The Knoxville Journal reported the next day.

After the broadcast, Welles and CBS were roundly criticized. Hundreds of letters and telegrams were sent to the four-year-old Federal Communications Commission. In studies and surveys conducted weeks after the broadcast, some listeners cited the authenticity of the news bulletins as the reason for their fear. But the broadcast did not frighten everyone. About 40 percent of the letters sent to the FCC, and 90 percent of those sent to the Mercury Theatre, were positive.

In the months following "War of the Worlds," Mercury Theatre became "The Campbell Playhouse" through a corporate sponsorship by the Campbell Soup Company. Welles went to RKO Pictures, where he later directed and starred in "Citizen Kane," the critically acclaimed film inspired by newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst.

Seventy five years after its debut, "War of the Worlds" remains a testament to the power of radio as a broadcast medium.

The story of the "War of the Worlds" broadcast is told in the Newseum's News Corporation News History Gallery.

"War of the Welles," a new KPCC radio documentary that goes behind the scenes of the radio classic, can be heard on Southern California Public Radio.

• New 'War of the Worlds' documentary — 'War of the Welles' — goes behind the scenes of the 1938 radio classic
• News Corporation News History Gallery

Express Best of 2013

Newseum Voted Among the Best in 2013

WASHINGTON — The Newseum was voted one of Washington, D.C.'s most popular museums in an annual poll conducted by Express, a free daily newspaper issued by The Washington Post.

Readers named the Newseum the city's best "non-Smithsonian museum" in the Arts category. The museum also earned top honors in the "most underrated tourist attraction" and was recognized for its gift store.

For complete poll results, please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/express/

Hank Greenspun Terrace on Pennsylvania Avenue (Sam Kittner/Newseum)

D.C. Open For Business, Despite Shutdown

WASHINGTON — Despite the first government shutdown in 17 years which has forced the closing of many D.C. museums and cultural institutions, numerous attractions, including the Newseum, remain open to tourists.

The Newseum experienced only one group cancellation for the first day of the shutdown, but it also added another group for that day. Walk-in traffic has been brisk. Groups are being booked for the remainder of the week and for upcoming visits. The Newseum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Other popular destinations that are open today include:

• The Corcoran Gallery of Art
• The National Museum of Women in the Arts
• Kreeger Museum
• Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens
• The Phillips Collection
• The International Spy Museum
• National Geographic Museum
• Crime Museum
• National Building Museum
• Koshland Science Museum (open Wednesday –Monday)
• George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens

All of these destinations include paid admission. D.C.'s public bus and rail system remains open.

This photo of John F. Kennedy at a 1959 press conference in Omaha, Neb., was widely used on his presidential campaign materials. Credit: Estate of Jacques Lowe

Newseum Hosts JFK Day, Other Events, to Mark Anniversary

WASHINGTON — On Friday, Nov. 22, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Newseum will host "JFK Remembrance Day," featuring a number of daylong JFK-themed discussions with authors, journalists and filmmakers.

All events are included with museum admission.

The Newseum also will rebroadcast in real time three hours of CBS News's live television coverage from Nov. 22, 1963, including the unforgettable moment when legendary anchorman Walter Cronkite reported to the nation that the president was dead.

A full schedule of events will be available as new programs are added.

Schedule of Events

10 a.m.: Screening of "One PM Central Standard Time," narrated by actor George Clooney.
Documentary Theater (90 minutes)

11 a.m.: Gallery Talk: Creating Camelot
Concourse Level (20 minutes)

11:30 a.m.: Dean Owen, author of "Reflections on the Life, Assassination and Legacy of John F. Kennedy," participates in a panel discussion and book signing.
Knight TV Studio (60 minutes)

Noon: Screening of "John F. Kennedy A Legacy Remembered," a 30-minute special produced by Voice of America.
Documentary Theater (30 minutes)

1 p.m.: Screening of "President Kennedy Has Been Shot" and a panel discussion with filmmaker Gerardine Wurzburg.
Documentary Theater (60 minutes)

1:40 p.m.: CBS News footage of the events on Nov. 22, 1963, shown on the 90-foot high screen.
New York Times–Ochs-Sulzberger Family Great Hall of News (180 minutes)

2:00 p.m.: Gallery Talk: Three Shots Were Fired.
Sixth Floor (20 minutes)

3 p.m.: James Swanson, author of "End of Days," participates in a panel discussion and book signing.
Knight TV Studio (60 minutes)

3:30 p.m.: Screening of "As It Happened."
Documentary Theater (90 minutes)

• Assassination of JFK and Kennedy Family History

"Making a Change"

Newseum Institute Launches Civil Rights Learning Module

WASHINGTON — On Friday, Aug. 30, 2013, the Newseum Institute will add a new civil rights-focused learning module to its online education resource, Digital Classroom. Called "Making a Change," the module will be available to classrooms across the country for teachers and students studying the civil rights movement.

Digital Classroom is a free, cross-disciplinary resource featuring interactive timelines, archival videos and downloadable historical front pages, emphasizing historical connections, media literacy and civics.

In the "Making a Change" module, students and teachers have access to three online interactives, nine lesson plans, 40 archival newsreels and interviews, and more than 200 historical front pages and images. An interactive timeline highlights 100 seminal events in the civil rights movement and allows students to explore print and video news reports that add critical context to key moments. By exploring a civil rights media map, students will be able to compare and contrast how news publications such as The Afro-American and The Washington Post covered such news events as the 1963 March on Washington and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

For teachers, the site offers comprehensive yet flexible lesson plans designed for middle, high school and college classrooms. These standards-aligned lesson plans will help teachers enhance student engagement with Newseum content, their communities and their peers across the country. As part of the "Making a Change" module, students can submit their own civil rights class work, news reports and local events for inclusion in the interactive timeline and map.

Earlier this month, the Newseum opened "Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement," an exhibit that explores the new generation of student leaders in the early 1960s who fought segregation by exercising their First Amendment rights and making their voices heard. The display features a section of the original F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where in 1960 four African-American college students launched the sit-in movement, and a bronze casting of the Birmingham, Ala., jail cell door behind which King penned his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail" in 1963.

The Newseum's Digital Classroom was made possible by the Ford Foundation. More about the Newseum's civil rights initiatives can be found at newseum.org/civilrights.

• Digital Classroom
• Newseum Institute and the First Amendment Center
• Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech. (Courtesy The Associated Press)

Five Freedoms of First Amendment on Display at March 50 Years Ago

Fifty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom of his dream of racial equality — setting a historic milepost in the civil rights movement and in the nation's repudiation of the legal and historical stain of slavery.

The means, mechanism and methods of that Aug. 28, 1963, speech were the five freedoms of the First Amendment, given new definition and impact in that moment by an elegant and moving voice.

King's speech was rooted in a religious and philosophical belief of equality: "When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent Constitution and Declaration of Independence," King said, those Founders promised "that all men — yes, black men as well as white men —would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Clearly, the right of free speech ensured that an entrenched and powerful system of bigotry backed by laws of segregation and the historical customs of separation could not silence its critics. The rights of assembly and petition guaranteed that hundreds of thousands of marchers — an amazingly diverse group, in peaceful protest on that day and others — could not long be stopped, dispersed or silenced by government forces.

And the amendment also provided that a free press, while shamefully slow in many cases to rise to the challenge, ultimately would document the terrible legacies of slavery — poverty, unemployment and fractured families — as well as provide a living room view of the horrific death spasms of a segregated society. There was no avoiding the evening news views of police dogs and fire hoses loosed on fellow citizens, the magazine articles with indelible images of lynched men, and the newspaper stories and photos of bombed churches and bloody Freedom Riders.

It is no stretch to say that our First Amendment freedoms were never so much in evidence, never more important, and never so essential in providing and protecting the means by which a nation could confront its worst demons without government direction, interference or control.

Just 100 years after the Civil War tore at the fabric of the Union, those freedoms provided the path for the nation to take corrective action by a new set of laws to protect voting rights and against discrimination, and to set in motion new attitudes. Little more than one century after a nationwide controversy was sparked in 1901 when President Theodore Roosevelt invited noted African-American educator Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House, the nation saw the election in 2008 of an African-American president, Barack Obama.

To be sure, the effort toward equal rights goes on, as does the role of our five core freedoms in that work.

At a number of programs surrounding the opening of "Make some Noise," a new exhibit at the Newseum noting the events of 1963, speakers and panelists reminded us that the march was not just for "freedom, but also about "jobs." Fifty years later, unemployment for minorities still exceeds by far the jobless rate for whites.

Speakers at the National Mall events commemorating the March expanded the call for equality to all minorities, to gays and to immigrants. Critics also assailed the U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year to end what many see as the essential voter rights protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

Today's legislative and social battles over the major issues of our day are both fueled by First Amendment freedoms and tempered by the "safety valve" aspect of those same rights. We have thus far avoided using those freedoms to avoid the great fear of the Founders, the "tyranny of the majority" that by force, heredity or royal claims had so paralyzed social progress in their time, and which even today plunge many nations into violent convulsions.

Panelists in a July 29 program at the Newseum theorized that King's closing words echo strongly down the halls of our history, because he spoke both to issues and aspiration in great American experience in self-governance, one rooted in five basic freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. He put it this way:

"When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, Free at last, Great God almighty, We are free at last."

The 1963 March on Washington Stamp

Postal Service Unveils Anniversary Stamp

WASHINGTON — To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled a new Forever stamp at the Newseum on Aug. 23. The stamp completes a series of three that honor the struggle for civil rights in the United States.

The unveiling follows a first-of-its-kind social media campaign by the USPS that asked the public to "take a stand for equality" and add their Facebook profile photos to a mosaic of the stamp design.

Actress Gabrielle Union was on hand to add the final photo and unveil the stamp design. The latest stamp is an impressionistic depiction of a diverse group of protesters bearing signs calling for equal rights and jobs with the Washington Monument in the background.

The program, hosted by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr., featured Rep. John Lewis and deputy postmaster general Ronald Stroman, who jointly dedicated the stamp. In 1963, Lewis was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and an organizer of the march.

"This stamp will remind us of the distance we've come, the distance we've traveled, and the distance we must still go before we lay down the burden of race and class and color, and create one America where no one is left out or left behind," Lewis said.

The Newseum observes the 50th anniversary celebrations with two new exhibits focusing on the civil rights movement. "Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement" explores the triumphs and challenges of young civil rights leaders in the 1960s, including Rep. Lewis.

"Civil Rights at 50" is a changing three-year exhibit that explores the formative moments of the movement, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington, through the newspaper and magazine coverage of the era.

The stamp serves as an enduring symbol of the fight for equality and justice.

"It is a powerful image. When you look at it, you can't help but think of the debt that Americans owe those marchers," Stroman said.

• Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement
• Civil Rights at 50

"Anchorman: The Exhibit" artifact arrives.

Anchorman: Sex Panther

The Newseum’s exhibits team is hard at work preparing artifacts from Ron Burgundy and the Channel 4 News team that will be seen when "Anchorman: The Exhibit" opens at the Newseum on Nov. 14.

The panther is out of the bag on one particularly sexy artifact. Watch the unveiling exclusively on our Facebook page.

Ron Burgundy himself will have more to say about the exhibit and his legendary career in the coming weeks. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram to be among the first to know all the classy things that are in store for "Anchorman: The Exhibit" at the Newseum.

"Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" opens in theaters nationwide Dec. 20.

• 'Anchorman: The Exhibit' Opens Nov. 14 at the Newseum

The 1963 March on Washington Stamp

U.S. Postal Service to Launch new 1963 March on Washington Forever Stamp at the Newseum

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the U.S. Postal Service will unveil a limited-edition commemorative stamp at a special program held at the Newseum on Aug. 23.

The ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the New York Times–Ochs-Sulzberger Family Great Hall of News on Level 1. The stamp will go on sale the same day.

Visitors who want to attend the event must check in at a table located in front of the Newseum beginning at 9:30 a.m. Tickets are limited and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

In the true spirit of participation that surrounded the historic march, the Postal Service for the first time invites the public to help digitally unveil the new stamp and become a part of a virtual stamp mosaic. Individuals can pledge to "take a stand for equality" and add their Facebook or Twitter profile photo to the March on Washington Stamp Mosaic on the U.S. Postal Service Stamps Facebook page. Each photo unveils a small piece of the stamp artwork. As more people participate, the artwork will gradually be uncovered until the full stamp is revealed on Aug. 23.

The Newseum's newest exhibits on the civil rights movement, "Make Some Noise" and "1963: Civil Rights at 50," explore the new generation of student leaders in the early 1960s who fought segregation and the watershed moments of the movement from 1963, including the historic March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

March on Washington Memorial Youth Mentoring Summit

Newseum Hosts Civil Rights Youth Summit

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2013, the Newseum, in partnership with the National Park Service, the National Alliance of Faith and Justice, and the National Park Foundation, hosts the second day of the March on Washington Memorial Youth Mentoring Summit.

The summit will be held on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington and will feature participants in the civil rights movement, including Carlotta Walls LaNier and Ernest Green, two of the "Little Rock Nine" students who integrated Little Rock's Central High School in 1957.

Other guests include Chuck McDew, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1961 to 1963, and Edith Lee-Payne, whose iconic photo at age 11, taken at the 1963 March on Washington, became a symbol of youth involvement.

Lee-Payne will also appear at a special screening Aug. 25 at the Newseum of "Eye on the '60s," a documentary on Life magazine photographer Rowland Scherman's civil rights images. Scherman took the photograph of Lee-Payne at the March on Washington and will appear with her at the screening.

The Newseum's newest exhibit, "Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement," tells the story of this new generation of student leaders in the early 1960s who fought segregation by exercising their First Amendment rights and making their voices heard. The exhibit opened on Aug. 2.

The summit is free and open to the public, but seats are limited and must be reserved online.

The screening of "Eye on the '60s" is free with paid Newseum admission or Press Pass membership.

• Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement
• March on Washington Memorial Youth Mentoring Summit
• National Park Service
• National Alliance of Faith and Justice
• National Park Foundation

Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos (Photo courtesy of Amazon.com)

With Post Purchase, Bezos Has Chance to Remake Newspaper Model

Jeff Bezos made it clear in founding Amazon.com that he can compete in the marketplace.

We'll just have to wait and see if he can, and will, do the same thing in the marketplace of ideas — that equally combative zone protected and preserved by the First Amendment's provision for a free press.

The historic sale of The Washington Post to Bezos, announced Aug. 5, is most noteworthy in that First Amendment sense, even beyond the already-rising sea of speculation over how its new owner will move it from traditional ink-on-paper distribution to the inevitable one involving electrons.

The First Amendment's protection for a free press doesn't identify any particular owners or even what kind of press gets shelter. But what it does provide for is a news media that functions as the proverbial watchdog on government, ultimately requiring it be a defender, informer and surrogate for citizens who need information on how their government and public officials are functioning.

The Washington Post, once a lightweight also-ran in a long-lost, multi-newspaper era in D.C., built a reputation as one of the nation's foremost newspapers in the 80 years it was owned by the Graham family. The Watergate scandal, of which the Post uncovered and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, summons up a high point in national journalism in the last 50 years.

The paper's leaders were leaders in the industry, from the Grahams as outspoken and courageous publishers, to the inimitable Ben Bradlee, that rare editor whose fame spread beyond the trade, to the unique reporter-movie hero category inhabited only by a few and dominated for more than a generation by Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Certainly the newspaper had its critics, chief among them being those who said it sacrificed objectivity for a liberal voice. And it publicly stumbled at times — handing back a Pulitzer for a story it learned too late was far more fiction than fact.

What made, and makes, the Post truly unique, even with such strong competitors such as The New York Times and the network news operations, was, and is, that it held the government accountable on a daily basis as only a local newspaper can. From relatively mundane matters affecting and afflicting the federal bureaucracy, to the highest reaches of nationwide policy and national security, those were hometown topics, with sources in neighborhoods, as well as in Congress.

And that's where Bezos's highest challenge will be, in terms of the 45 words that include freedom of the press. He's free to take the paper where he will — no government decree or legislation mandates his next moves. Will he be noted for quality, quantity, or neither? Can he sustain that intense focus on policy and process in an era of news as celebrity fluff and pundit chatter?

On "CBS This Morning" Aug. 6, author and journalist Ken Auletta said that one immediate tactic might be to make the Post available for free on Amazon's Kindle reader devices — a huge boost in potential readers at no real cost. A story in The New York Times sounded a warning that Bezos, who it described as having "a sort of libertarian bent," also "will now have a microphone as powerful as anyone in Washington and outside the West Wing."

Bezos does have a chance to be the landmark 21st century owner: Someone with financial pockets deep enough to sustain the quality of a major enterprise like the Post, while it and others search for a long-term solution to lost revenues that fled online where Amazon is preeminent. He touched on both areas — journalism and the future — in a note to Post staffers:

"The values of The Post do not need changing. The paper's duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners. We will continue to follow the truth wherever it leads, and we'll work hard not to make mistakes. When we do, we will own up to them quickly and completely," Bezos wrote, also noting that he will not run the paper on a day-to-day basis.

As to what's ahead, he told his new staff, "The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition. … There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment."

Bezos's success with Amazon came from taking an old format — the mail-order catalog — and completely reshaping it to a new on-demand era, setting the pace in how businesses market, sell, ship and satisfy their customers.

The new owner also set out a similar plan for his newest enterprise, and with no small irony, it, too, builds on an old idea: "Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about — government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports — and working backwards from there."

Perhaps the key to revitalizing American journalism's economic base and editorial vigor is just that: going backward to go forward.

"Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement" (Maria Bryk/Newseum)

Visitors 'Make Some Noise' about Newseum's Civil Rights Exhibits

WASHINGTON — The Newseum opened two new exhibits Aug. 2 on the U.S. civil rights movement that highlighted the contributions and struggles of students.

With the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington approaching on Aug. 28, the timely exhibits underscore how organizers in the movement used the media to garner public support.

"Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement" takes visitors through a timeline of events that defined the movement and its student organizers, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

One quotation featured in "Make Some Noise" from Rep. John Lewis, SNCC chair from 1963 to 1966, tells the story well: "Without the media, the civil rights movement would have been a bird without wings," Lewis said. Bringing the fight to America's front pages, the press made an impact on the movement, and as a result, reporters were threatened with violence and were attacked for spreading the word of injustice. Broadcast news reports were particularly instrumental in turning regional struggles into national concerns.

Notable artifacts of civil rights history have a home in the new exhibit, including a section of the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter where North Carolina students started sit-in protests in 1960, and a casting of the jail cell door behind which the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. authored the seminal "Letter From Birmingham Jail" in 1963.

Jim Deleonardis of Miami, Fla., recalled being required to use a segregated water fountain at his integrated school and said he watched the coverage of the civil rights movement while growing up in West Virginia. Deleonardis said the exhibit brought back memories about how "the news was mostly one-sided, especially in the South."

Adjacent to "Make Some Noise," the "Civil Rights at 50" exhibit of newspaper front pages and magazine covers, captures the turbulence of the 1963 through events such as the Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala., and the assassination in Mississippi of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. The display shows media coverage as it really happened, including press biases and prejudices. "Civil Rights at 50" will be updated in 2014 and 2015.

• Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement
• Civil Rights at 50