"Women in the Struggle"

"Women in the Struggle” Featured on U.S. Stamps 

 

By Sandra Long Weaver

 

        Honoring the women featured on U.S. postage stamps was the subject of a Women’s History Month program and exhibit at the main branch of Montclair Library on March 14.

           The exhibit, titled  Women in the Struggle, was curated by philatelist Clarence McKnight. It depicted women from the various roles they had in building the country over the last 250 years.

         McKnight is the webmaster for the Ebony Society of Philatelic Events and Reflections (ESPER) and a member of the New Jersey chapter of the organization. He regularly shows posters and presents during Black History Month, Hispanic History Month, Women’s History Month and other special occasions and events.

          His exhibit divided the women into groups from politics, law, entertainment, the arts, sports, education and social justice. Some were featured individually and others on mint sheets of stamps. Others were shown on first day of issue cachets.

        The program also featured his power point presentation of "Women in the Struggle" by McKnight that talked about the roles of the women included in the exhibit.

       The two-hour program featured comments from Montclair Mayor Dr. Renee’ Baskerville, Deputy Mayor Susan Shin Andersen, 4th Ward Councilwoman Aminah Toler and Sandra Cook-McKnight of the Montclair Section of the National Council of Negro Women. 

Cook-McKnight, wife of Clarence McKnight, who named the exhibit, is also one of the first Black teachers hired by the Montclair School District and taught for 48 years before retiring in 2020. ESPER New Jersey state Director Della Moses Walker moderated the program.

      There was also a dramatic presentation about Harriet Tubman by Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Copeland and a violin solo performance by Khetiwe Khumalo.

       McKnight also created a special poster featuring women who were members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. who are featured on stamps. Sorority members included Mary McLeod Bethune, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. 10th national president Dorothy I. Height.

       Sandra Long Weaver, a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists and a member of the North Jersey chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc, did a presentation on three Black women who were also journalists on stamps; Gwen Ifill and Ethel Payne were members of the sorority and NABJ. Long Weaver also talked about journalist Ida B. Wells, who fought against lynching and laid some of the advocacy work on which NABJ was founded in 1975.  

       Long Weaver also read “Phenomenal Woman,” an iconic poem by Maya Angelou, another woman featured on stamps. She recognized the more than 50 women attending the event as phenomenal women.

       The program was in conjunction with an exhibit in the library by the Montclair chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. It features local women from the sorority who have had an impact in the community. 

 

By Sandra Long Weaver