Perhaps you ladies are more in the know than I am, but yesterday I went to the U.S. Post Office and almost fell over when I saw stamps honoring Gwen Ifil, the groundbreaking African-American journalist, who died from breast and endometrial cancer in 2016.

Yes – Gwen graces the 43rd stamp in the Black Heritage® series. She was the first African-American woman to host a nationally televised public affairs program, PBS’s Washington Week in Review. She was the program’s longtime co-host from 1999 until her death in 2016.

Gwen was known for her intellectual rigor, tenacity and integrity as a journalist.  In 2008, she moderated the vice-presidential debate between Senator Joe Biden and the then Republican governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, among many other achievements.

Gwen was a fighter all her life. Perhaps what put her on a trajectory to major success was when she made a bold move in her career by leaving the Washington Post after 7 years in 1991 when they told her they felt she wasn’t ready to cover Capitol Hill.   Proving them wrong, Gwen joined the New York Times where covered the White House from 1991 to 1994.

Gwen Ifil died young at 61 years of uterine cancer – a disease, which robs so many of us of our lives.

Ladies, put these stamps on your next correspondence to show your determination to make bold moves, lead with integrity and highlight the importance of improving Black women’s reproductive health.

For more SuzyKnew! articles on Gwen Ifil see: Uterine Cancer On The Rise