DETROIT, MI — The Detroit Postal Service will hold a Special Stamp Ceremony to honor the 40th stamp in the Black Heritage series, the Dorothy Height Forever stamp. The ceremony will be on Monday, February 13, 2017 at 6:30 P.M. at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 315 E. Warren Ave, Detroit MI 48201. The event is free and open to the public.

Dorothy Height, a tireless activist, dedicated her life to fighting for racial and gender equality. She became one of the most influential civil and women’s rights leaders of the 20th century.

“The Postal Service is proud to honor civil rights icon Dorothy Height, an American treasure, whose illustrious career spanned almost a century,” says Derron Bray, postmaster, Detroit, MI.

“The Dorothy Height Forever stamp will serve as a lasting tribute to her life and legacy of seeking equality and justice for all Americans, regardless of ethnicity, gender or race.”

The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) of Metropolitan Detroit has partnered with the Postal Service for this event featuring former YWCA Executive President JoAnn Watson as a guest speaker, who personally knew Dorothy Height. In 1977, Height officially retired from the YWCA, for which she worked for 40 years.

Also joining the stamp ceremony is the Detroit Section, National Council of Negro Women, Inc.; the Detroit Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc; and Rev. Daniel W. Aldridge, Jr., Dorothy Height’s nephew.

In 1963, the Height-led National Council of Negro Women joined the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership. Height was an architect of the August 1963 March on Washington, where she shared the stage with Martin Luther King Jr. It was Height who pushed to include a voice of youth like John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and insisted on no time limits for King’s speech.

Gender equality also was important to Height, who fought for the rights of women, particularly women of color. President John F. Kennedy named her to his Commission on the Status of Women, which was chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. Height attended the 1963 White House ceremony where Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act. In 1971, she helped form the National Women’s Political Caucus.

In addition to numerous honorary degrees, Height received the nation’s two highest civilian honors. In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A decade later, President George W. Bush presented her with the Congressional Gold Medal. In 2009, she was a guest of Barack Obama when he was sworn in as the nation’s 44th president.

The Dorothy Height stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp, which will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price. The public is asked to share the news of the stamp using the hashtags #DorothyHeightForever and #BlackHeritageStamps.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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