Springfield, MASS — On Sunday, Feb. 9, as Black History Month kicks off, community members in Springfield, MA, are joining Postal Service officials to honor late journalist Gwen Ifill at a stamp unveiling ceremony at Ifill’s former high school. 

Ifill, though born in New York on Sept. 29, 1955, came to Massachusetts when her father’s work as a pastor led the family to Springfield in the early 1970s. 

Gwen Ifill is featured on the 43rd Black Heritage series postal stamp, officially released in Washington D.C. on Jan. 30. Throughout her long industrious journalism career, Ifill was most notable as moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week” and co-anchor and managing editor of “PBS NewsHour.”

Now, coming full circle, Ifill will be honored in the same place that launched her into adulthood, at her alma mater – Classical High School. The building has since been converted into condominiums and renamed Classical High Condominiums though maintains its rich history.

“We are thrilled to join the friends and family of Gwen Ifill to celebrate her life. The Postal Service has a long history of serving communities, just as Gwen Ifill did, and we are proud to honor her legacy on a Forever stamp,” said Springfield Postmaster Joe Conti.

The stamp unveiling ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. in the atrium of Classical High Condominiums at 235 State St.

Background:

The Black Heritage stamp series, introduced in 1978, also includes Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Height, Madam C.J. Walker, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Lena Horne and Gregory Hines.

The Ifill stamp features a photo of her taken in 2008 by photographer Robert Severi. Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp. News of the stamp is being shared with the hashtags #GwenIfillForever and #BlackHeritageStamps. Followers of the Postal Service’s Facebook page can view video of the ceremony at facebook.com/USPS.

Among the first African Americans to hold prominent positions in both broadcast and print journalism, Ifill was a trailblazer in the profession.

After graduating from college in 1977, Ifill’s first job as a journalist was at The Boston Herald American. She later worked at The Baltimore Evening Sun, The Washington Post and The New York Times, where she was a White House correspondent and covered Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign in 1992.

In 1994, Ifill moved to NBC, where she covered politics in the Washington bureau. Five years later, she joined PBS as senior political correspondent for “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week,” becoming the first woman and first African American to moderate a major television news-analysis show. During her career, Ifill covered seven presidential campaigns and, in 2004, she became the first African American female journalist to moderate a vice-presidential debate. She also moderated the 2008 vice-presidential debate. In 2013, Ifill became part of the first all-female team to anchor a daily national broadcast news show, “PBS NewsHour.” Ifill died in 2016.

Among Ifill’s honors were the Radio Television Digital News Foundation’s Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award (2006), Harvard’s Shorenstein Center’s Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism (2009) and induction into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame (2012). In 2015, she was awarded the Fourth Estate Award by the National Press Club. She received numerous honorary degrees and served on the boards of the News Literacy Project and the Committee to Protect Journalists, which renamed its Press Freedom Award in her honor.

The 2016 John Chancellor Award was posthumously awarded to Ifill by the Columbia Journalism School. In 2017, the Washington Press Club Foundation and “PBS NewsHour” created a journalism fellowship named for Ifill. Her alma mater, Simmons University, opened the Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts, and Humanities in the fall of 2018.

The Gwen Ifill Black Heritage stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp, which will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price.

Postal Products

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through The Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps, by calling 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724), by mail through USA Philatelic, or at Post Office locations nationwide. Videos of most stamp ceremonies will be available on facebook.com/usps.

Information on ordering first-day-of-issue postmarks and covers is at usps.com/shopstamps under “Collectors.”

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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