USPS issues four female athletes Forever Stamps
Caribbean Life, March 11-17, 2022 11
WOMEN HISTORY MONTH:
As Black History Month
morphs into celebrations of the
accomplishments of female history
makers, the United States
Postal Service released four
stamps featuring images illustrating
Title IX female athletes
in honor of Women’s History
Month.
Issued March 3, 2022, the
four Forever stamps commemorate
the 50th anniversary of the
passage of a Civil Rights law prohibiting
discrimination on the
basis of sex from any educational
program or activity receiving
federal financial assistance.
Title IX was enacted by Congress
and signed into law by President
Richard Nixon on June 23, 1972.
Since its passage 50 years ago,
Title IX has been applied at elementary,
secondary and tertiary
institutions. Its enactment prohibits
sexual harassment, sexual
assault, dating and domestic violence,
stalking on school campuses
or within school programs
or activities. For half of a century,
the law has impacted generations
of young people in the
USA allowing a broader range
of competitive sports offerings,
more robust physical education
regimens and equal spaces to
perform. In addition, the law
provides protections and is still
evolving.
The four distinct Women History
Month stamps feature silhouettes
of female athletes — a
runner, a swimmer, a gymnast
and a soccer player.
Their faceless images muted
on a dark blue background, represent
diversity evident from
four hair adornments. One displays
cornrows of braided hair,
another sports a single plait. The
other pair depicts less obvious
coifs covered by a swim cap and
the other in a traditional hairstyle.
Each design is decorated
by a yellow laurel branch akin to
the Olympic symbol for victory.
These Forever stamps like earlier
issues are priced permanently
at the purchase fee regardless
of price hikes. They add to the
Heritage Series which feature
achieving African Americans in
science, art, fashion, politics,
music, journalism, aviation and
other genres.
Previous issues honoring African
American women include
dedications to Bessie Smith,
Florence Ballard, Ella Fitzgerald,
Dinah Washington. Sarah
Vaughn, Cong. Shirley Chisholm,
Rosa Parks, Gwen Ifill, Barbara
Jordan, Hattie McDaniels, Lena
Horne, Wilma Randolph, Billie
Holiday, Harriett Tubman, Dorothy
Height, Sojourner Truth,
Zora Neale Hurston, Bessie Coleman,
Marian Anderson, Ida B.
Wells, Madam CJ Walker, Mary
Mc Leod Bethune, Maya Angelou
and others.
Harriet Tubman was the first
African American woman to
be honored on a U.S. postage
stamp. Priced at 13 cents on Feb.
1, 1978, it launched the Black
Heritage series.
Born a slave, she escaped to
freedom in 1849. Emancipation
did not prevent her from returning
south to assist her family to
freedom. She risked capture by
embarking on missions she was
dubbed the “conductor” of the
Underground Railroad. Known
as “the Moses of her people,”
she helped more than 300 captive
slaves escape to freedom to
Canada through the network of
routes and safe houses.
Catch You On The Inside!
Forever Stamps 2022.
Inside Life
By Vinette K. Pryce
Start Here. Go Anywhere.
Get Back in the
Swing This Spring
at BMCC!
Apply Today!
www.bmcc.cuny.edu/start
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