Muhammad Ali to be honored with commemorative U.S. postage stamp
Muhammad Ali will be honored for the first time with a commemorative U.S. postage stamp, the U.S. Postal Service announced, turning a joke from the boxing legend’s life into a reality. A first-day-of-issue ceremony for the “Muhammad Ali Forever Stamp” is set for Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky—Ali’s birthplace and home to the Muhammad Ali Center.
Lonnie Ali said she was excited by the prospect of having her husband’s image on the stamp and by what it means to the way people will remember him. She told The Associated Press that the stamp would bring Ali back to public attention “every time they look at that stamp,” and she described it as a chance to reinforce the messaging of his life of connection.
The stamp will be publicly available at the ceremony, when people can buy Muhammad Ali Forever Stamps featuring a black-and-white Associated Press photo from 1974 showing Ali in a famous boxing pose. USPS said each sheet contains 20 stamps, and it will also include another photo design showing Ali posing in a pinstripe suit that recognizes his work as an activist and humanitarian.
USPS said 22 million stamps have been printed for the issue and that they will not be reprinted once they sell out. Because the stamp is a Forever Stamp, the First-Class Mail postage will remain valid even as mailing rates change, a detail Lonnie Ali called an “ultimate” tribute tied to preserving Ali’s legacy in everyday use.
USPS director of stamp services Lisa Bobb-Semple said USPS has long kept a process in place for choosing stamp subjects and designs. She said the idea for a Muhammad Ali stamp first came about shortly after Ali’s death almost a decade ago, and she said the development process took time because USPS requires people who appear on stamps to be dead for at least three years, with the exception of presidents.
Bobb-Semple said a friend of Ali helped launch a “#GetTheChampAStamp” campaign that sparked public interest in the idea. She said the USPS had to keep the planned Ali stamp secret until it was official, and she described the project as something USPS had wanted to bring to market.
The selection process involves the Citizen Stamps Advisory Committee, which is appointed by the postmaster general. Bobb-Semple said the committee meets quarterly with her team to review suggestions submitted by the public; she described there as typically being about 20 to 25 commemorative stamp issues each year.
Once an idea is selected, Bobb-Semple said the USPS works with art directors to design the stamp. She said the process includes a final approval stage in which USPS legal staff conduct a rigorous review before the stamp can be issued to the public. Stamp art director and designer Antonio Alcalá said the Ali stamp went through review of hundreds of images before the final choices were narrowed to a few.
Alcalá said the AP photo used on the Forever Stamp was chosen as one of the final designs among other image options, and he said it shows Ali in his prime, posing with boxing gloves while looking straight into the camera. He described postage stamps as “miniature works of art designed to reflect the American experience” and said the Muhammad Ali stamps fit that description.
Ali’s life beyond boxing is part of the story USPS said the stamp will carry. Born Cassius Clay Jr., Ali changed his name after converting to Islam in the 1960s and spoke openly about race, religion and war, including refusing to be inducted into the U.S. Army in 1967 and citing his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. The announcement also recalled that Ali later emerged as a humanitarian and used his fame to promote peace, religious understanding and charitable causes, even as Parkinson’s disease limited his speech and movement.
Lonnie Ali said she believes the compassion at the center of her husband’s public life remains especially important during a period of political division. She said she thinks Ali would have tried to “block a lot of this out” if he were alive and continue connecting with people through daily acts of kindness and compassion.