Gwen Ifill gets USPS Forever stamp

The United States Postal Service has unveiled several new Forever stamps that will be issued in 2020. Among the stamp-sized works of art is a portrait of late PBS journalist Gwen Ifill.

Ifill’s stamp will be a part of USPS’ Black Heritage series. The esteemed journalist died in 2016 following a battle with cancer. She was 61. Throughout her career, Ifill moderated vice-presidential debates and worked for 17 years as a moderator on PBS “NewsHour.” She was also managing editor of “Washington Week.”

A 2008 photo of Ifill taken by photographer Robert Severi is now set to appear on a Forever stamp. “Among the first African Americans to hold prominent positions in both broadcast and print journalism, Ifill was a trailblazer in the profession,” according to USPS. The Postal Service has been celebrating people, events and cultural milestones on these special stamps since 1847.

Ifill’s stamp, designed by art director Derry Noyes, is the 43rd stamp in the Black Heritage series, which includes entertainer Lena Horne, civil rights activist Dorothy Height, Carter G. Woodson, who is credited as the “father of black history.”

The group of 2020 Forever stamps includes an homage to Arnold Palmer, a celebration of the Lunar New Year: Year of the Rat, and a commemoration of Maine’s statehood on its 200th anniversary.

There will also be four Forever stamps that celebrate different facets of hip-hop: “MCing (rapping), b-boying (breakdancing), DJing and graffiti art,” according to USPS. And another stamp will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to vote.

While the USPS unveiled these and other stamp designs Tuesday, they did warn that the 2020 stamps “are preliminary and subject to change.”