A post office closes over an historic exhibit showing signs for 'White' and 'Colored'

A post office closes over an historic exhibit showing signs for 'White' and 'Colored' Enlarge this image toggle caption Clint Schemmer/The Star-Exponent via AP Clint Schemmer/The Star-Exponent via AP MONTPELIER STATION, Va. — The United States Postal Service has closed a small Virginia post office over agency management's concerns about its location inside a historic train depot that also serves as a museum about racial segregation. In a statement this week addressing the closure, the USPS noted that the museum near former president James Madison's Montpelier estate has historical signage above two exterior doors, one labeled "White" and another labeled "Colored." It added that "Postal Service management considered that some customers may associate the racially-based, segregated entrances with the current operations of the Post Office and thereby draw negative associations between those operations and the painful legacy of discrimination and segregation." Christy Moriarty, The Montpelier Foundation's communications director, told the newspaper that the racial segregation exhibit and the post office have co-existed since 2010.