(This article was first published on May 14, 2015. It’s been updated following today’s announcement.)
It’s the year of the woman! With Hillary Clinton announcing her initiative to run for president and modern day feminist popping up everywhere, we may finally get to see a woman be the face of a US bill. In fact, a campaign started by “Women on 20’s” voted Harriet Tubman to be Andrew Jackson‘s replacement on the $20 bill.
As for why the pioneer of the abolitionist movement was voted to replace Jackson, the organization felt the president wasn’t well deserving of the accolade in the first place. In fact, our seventh president, who was a southern slave owner, also passed an Indian Removal Act during his presidency. The Act authorized the president to negotiate with Indian tribes in the Southern United States for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their ancestral homelands.
The online poll, voting for Tubman, lasted 10 weeks and included other notable historical female figures such as Eleanore Roosevelt, Rosa Parks and Sojourner Truth, just to name a few.
The group feels that it is time for change and hopes that we all will be holding a $20 bill with Tubman’s likeness on it by 2020 which will be the the centennial of women’s suffrage. The contest garnered more than 600,000 votes and the group will now present a petition to President Obama with the winner. The group is hopeful that the movement that they started will be successful in Washington, and even the President himself mentioned in a recent speech that he though a woman on the bill was a pretty good idea. Although voting is now over the group advises supporters to use the hashtag #DearMrPresident on social media to show their support.
You can read more on the campaign and sign the petition by visiting Women On 20s.
*Update*: It was officially announced earlier today, April, 20, 2016, that Tubman would, in fact, replace Jackson on the $20.
The Treasury Department will announce on Wednesday afternoon that Harriet Tubman, an African-American who ferried hundreds of slaves to freedom, will replace the slaveholding Andrew Jackson on the center of a new $20 note, according to a Treasury official, while newly popular Alexander Hamilton will remain on the face of the $10 bill.
Other depictions of women and civil rights leaders will also be part of new currency designs.
The new designs, from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, would be made public in 2020 in time for the centennial of woman’s suffrage and the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. None of the bills, including a new $5 note, would reach circulation until the next decade. – The NY Times
For the full article head over to The NYTimes.com
