North Carolina’s Ella Baker (left) and Ruby Hurley are two of six women pioneers
being honored at WSSU’s Diggs Gallery on Monday afternoon.

Winston-Salem, NC — Winston-Salem State University will join with the U.S. Postal Service for an annual Women’s History Month event, honoring women who pioneered civil rights in America and who are featured on the new commemorative postage stamp set, Civil Rights Pioneers. The event will take place on Monday, March 16, 2009 at WSSU’s Diggs Gallery beginning at 3 p.m.

University, postal and NAACP officials will be present during a historic ceremony paying tribute to such female trailblazers as Mary White Ovington, co-founder, NAACP; North Carolina’s Ella Baker, NAACP officer and founder of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); Mary Church Terrell, an early organizer of both the NAACP and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority; Fannie Lou Hamer, an activist for voting rights and member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party; Daisy Gatson Bates, first president of the Arkansas NAACP chapter and advisor to the Little Rock Nine; and Ruby Hurley, who organized many of the first NAACP chapters in the south.

These women are featured on a stamp set with other Pioneers such as Medgar Evers, J.R. Clifford, Joel Elias Spingarn, Charles Hamilton Houston, Oswald Garrison Villard and Walter White, all of whom made critical sacrifices for the advancement of the civil rights movement in this country.

The stamps are now available at Post Offices nationwide and online at www.usps.com/shop. These stamps, as well as related collectible items, will be available for purchase at this event, which is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, call (336) 668-1257.

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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 149 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes, six days a week. It has 34,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services, not tax dollars, to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.