RIVERSIDE – The U.S. Postal Service will dedicate the building housing its Riverside Main Post Office at 4150 Chicago Avenue in honor of the late Riverside Community Icon Woodie Rucker-Hughes at a special event at 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 25.

The event will be hosted by Riverside Postmaster Tanya Toedt-Fitzharris and feature remarks by Congressman Mark Takano, NAACP Riverside President Regina Patton-Stell, Riverside Unified School District Board Member Tom Hunt, Community Leader & Activist Dell Roberts, and Teliece Hughes-Jackson, daughter of the honoree.

The program will culminate in the unveiling of a plaque that designates the Riverside Main Post Office facility as the “Waudieur E. “Woodie” Rucker-Hughes Post Office Building.” Attendance at the event is by invitation only.

Rep. Takano introduced legislation (H.R. 5983) to rename the Riverside Main Post Office after Rucker-Hughes in March 2020. The legislation was signed into law by President Donald Trump in January 2021.

"It brings me great joy to celebrate the legacy of Woodie Rucker-Hughes by renaming the Riverside Post Office in her honor,” said Rep. Takano. "Woodie’s vision for social justice and equality in our schools transformed the Riverside community for the better. She had a tremendous impact on others and redefined what it means to be a role model. Her hopeful spirit and fullness of heart touched my own life and the lives of so many others. To this day, I remain inspired by her leadership and I feel lucky to have called her a dear friend. She undoubtedly deserves this dedication and I look forward to visiting the Woodie Rucker-Hughes Post Office."

“We’re proud to have our Main Post Office dedicated to Woodie Rucker-Hughes,” said Toedt-Fitzharris. “It’ll be an honor for our postal employees to report to work every day to a facility named after her. Rucker-Hughes’ dedication to Riverside will serve as an inspiration to us and a reminder of our own mission to serve our community.”

The event will open with the presentation of colors and pledge of allegiance by students of Martin Luther King High School, the performance of the Black National Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Corinthian Buffington, and an invocation by the Rev. Monrow Mabon, associate pastor at Allen Chapel Church.

Woodie Rucker-Hughes bio - Waudieur “Woodie” Rucker-Hughes was a longtime activist and educator who led the Riverside branch of the NAACP for two decades. A history teacher at North High School in Riverside from 1969 to 1975, Rucker-Hughes also served in multiple administrative roles at the Riverside Unified School District, and as executive director of the Opportunities Industrialization Center. She was born in Washington, D.C., graduated from Cardoza High School and received her undergraduate degree from D.C. Teachers College and her Master of Arts in Educational Administration from the University of Redlands. Rucker-Hughes passed away in 2018 after leading a life by the mantra of “Never let it rest until the good is better and the better is best.”

The Postal Service generally 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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