The U.S. Postal Service announced that the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the late author Toni Morrison (Beloved; The Bluest Eye) will be honored with new postage stamps next year.
The sport of women's soccer will also be honored.
Ginsburg, a longtime liberal member of the high court who died at age 87 in 2020, will be featured on a forever stamp that shows an oil painting of her "facing the viewer in her black judicial robe with an intricate white collar," USPS said in a statement.
The statement added, "After beginning her career as an activist lawyer fighting gender discrimination, Justice Ginsburg became a respected jurist whose important majority opinions advancing equality and strong dissents on socially controversial rulings made her a passionate proponent of equal justice and an icon of American culture." Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp with art by Michael J. Deas, based on a photograph by Philip Bermingham.
Regarding Morrison (1931-2019), a statement read, "Morrison was the rare author who achieved both bestseller status and critical success. In 1993, she made history as the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The stamp features a photograph of Morrison taken in 2000." Kessler designed the stamp with photography by Deborah Feingold.
A statement about the women's soccer stamp read, "From youth leagues to the elite world champion U.S. national team, millions of girls and women throughout the country participate in this fast-paced, competitive sport. The graphic stamp artwork depicts a female soccer player in action, walloping a ball with a side volley." Art director Antonio Alcala designed the stamp with an original illustration by Noah MacMillan (1988-2022).
Among some of the forthcoming stamps are ones that honor Native American Chief Standing Bear, artist Roy Lichtenstein, the Great Smoky Mountains, Ernest J. Gaines, snow globes, the red fox and the school bus.
