Treasury official says Harriet Tubman will go on $20 bill
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Treasury official said Wednesday, April 20, 2016, that Secretary Jacob Lew has decided to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, making her the first woman on U.S. paper currency in 100 years.
WASHINGTON >> Harriet Tubman, an African-American abolitionist who was born a slave, will stand with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin as among the iconic faces of U.S. currency.
The $20 bill will be redesigned with Tubman’s portrait on the front, marking two historic milestones, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced Wednesday. She will be the first African American on U.S. paper money and the first woman depicted in 100 years.
The leader of the Underground Railroad will replace the portrait of Andrew Jackson, the nation’s seventh president and a slave owner, who will be pushed to the back of the bill.
Lew also settled the backlash that had erupted after he announced an initial plan to remove Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary, from the $10 bill in order to honor a woman.
Hamilton will remain on the $10 note, Lew said.
Instead, the Treasury building on the back of the bill will be replaced with leaders of the suffrage movement to give women the right to vote, including Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul.
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The $5 bill will also undergo change. The illustration of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the will be redesigned to honor “events at the Lincoln Memorial that helped to shape our history and our democracy.” The new image will include civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson.
An online group, Women on 20s, said it was encouraged that Lew was responding to its campaign to replace Jackson with a woman. But it said it would not be satisfied unless Lew also committed to issuing the new $20 bill at the same time that the redesigned $10 bill is scheduled to be issued in 2020.
The $10 bill is the next note on Treasury’s redesign calendar, and it aims introduce updated protections against counterfeiting. That redesign was scheduled to be unveiled in 2020, which marks the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Lew had often cited that connection as a reason to put a woman on the $10 bill.
However, the effort ran into strong objections from supporters of Hamilton, who is enjoying renewed pop culture interest with the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton.”
Tubman, who was born into slavery in the early part of the 19th century, escaped and then used the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad to transport other slaves to freedom. After the Civil War, Tubman, who died in 1913, became active in the campaign for women’s suffrage.
Various groups have been campaigning to get a woman honored on the nation’s paper currency, which has been an all-male domain for more than a century.
The last woman featured on U.S. paper money was Martha Washington, who was on a dollar silver certificate from 1891 to 1896. The only other woman ever featured on U.S. paper money was Pocahontas, from 1865 to 1869. Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea are on dollar coins.
28 responses to “Treasury official says Harriet Tubman will go on $20 bill”
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no problem with putting her picture on the $20 bill, but hope they use a better picture.
Maybe they could touch it up a little to make her look like Michelle..?
They will hire a professional artist to make a drawing of her. Same like they did with the rest of the portraits on our bills and same to how every other country does it.
I don’t know if I necessarily agree with her on it, but it’s of great ironic amusement to me that we honor a historical figure who adamantly hated paper currency and the national bank with his own bill. In replacing him, we lose a subtle sense of comedy built into our currency.
Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill is like a center for encryption and anti-government surveillance being named for Representative Dianne Feinstein or the national NRA headquarters being named after Representative Maxine Waters. *EPIC-FAIL*
Probably something his highness shoved down the Treasury’s throat.
Or the fact that Jackson shouldn’t have been on the bill in the first place given his history regarding his thoughts and actions on paper currency and the national bank which would become the Fed.
Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill is like Ted Cruz’s name on abortion clinics.
Well, if one is an unabashed pacifist, one would object to Andy Jackson on principle; after all, he fought (and obviously survived) anywhere from five to a hundred duels, or more politely put, affaires d’honneur.
Regardless of how people view Jackson’s history as good or bad, it is massively ironic to put a man who hated paper currency on paper currency. Removing Jackson from something he hated would honor his role in American history.
Does it really upset you so much to have a pro-slavery president removed from the $20 and replaced by a anti-slavery abolitionist leader? Is it that you just don’t want a black person on your money?
Some people view the world by being against anything Obama is for. Hence why we see lots of Republicans with flip flopping ideas that change with the wind.
If this occured during Bush’s time, Marauders_1959 wouldn’t have an issue with it. Despite it being the same thing.
People here have gone so far as to openly disagree with Obama on things they previously were for purely because Obama praised them. They literally have no ideology or beliefs or backbone except “I hate Obama.”
They make Clinton and Romney, both known for saying anything to get what they want, look principled, stoic and standfast.
Aren’t there people, possibly you, who are on the opposite side of what you described? They agree with Obama no matter what he says/does?
AhiPoke, just because I consider a number of the fake republicans here a joke doesn’t mean I’m in Obama’s camp. He’s made a bunch of mistakes and acted in manners that would be impeachable, such as extra-judicial drone killings of American citizens.
I also disagree with his current stance on the Saudi Arabia lawsuit bill.
There are people who are lockstep with Obama, which is funny as they were the very same people who hated everything Bush did despite Obama and Bush largely having the same policies. That’s cognitive dissonance for you.
Furthermore, what I’m talking about is a wholesale abandonment of core beliefs, such as smaller government and personal responsibility just because Obama adopted them.
Richard, should we remove Thomas Jefferson’s image from the nickel and resurrect the Indian and the buffalo? After all, Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves over his lifetime (though admittedly, he didn’t purchase or trade for all of them outright).
Guess they think it’s the thought that counts. Like In South Africa, there’s a picture of an elephant on the 20 rand note. Hasn’t stopped poaching though.
If a woman had to be chosen, I’d have opted for Jeannette Rankin. While most might fault her beliefs, as an example of personal courage and the willingness to put her career, safety and reputation on the line, it’s hard to find a better example.
Crazy horse next?
Crazy Horse? Well, why not? A minor problem: the engraving office will need a stand-in to depict him; no photos of the celebrated warrior exist.
Well, if they can etch Sacagawea, I’d imagine they can etch anybody.
More appropriate if Thomas Jefferson’s black mistress was selected to oust him? Then again the current relatives may object?
This is a relief, I was really worried that political forces, pop culture, and the loud voices of American idiocracy were going to force the faces of Sarah Palin or Paris Hilton on a bill.
I wouldn’t mind having a $3 bill with Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse on the obverse and with the Disneyland castle with a flying Tinker Bell on the reverse. Disney is as much an ancient mythical figure to today’s young adults as any Founding Father.
It’s about time but let’s hope they photoshop the picture a little.
About time!!! She definitely deserves to be recognized!
What a waste of time and money. I bet that 85% of America doesn’t know who this lady is or what she did. I don’t see the need to change the faces on our money, why don’t they just change all of them already? That way they can put Obummer on one of the bills too. Glad that these guys are out of office at the end of the year, hope that Lew also takes a hike too.
85 percent of the country probably doesn’t know who Andrew Jackson was so what’s your point?
Why even change the picture on the bills? It obviously will cost money to do it and the money is better spent on something more useful.
Her picture reflects how the women of the time looked. Thank goodness there are more decent people in the world who aren’t sexists or racists like you, calentura and lespark. Neanderthals.
My comment was in reply to Mr mililani. Don’t know why it posted at the bottom.
I am not in favor of this change. They could make this change by putting Tubman on a coin.
Andrew Jackson was one mean son of gun and a genuine tough guy. There would be few today who could match him.
He was definitely against establishing a central bank (the Federal Reserve) which if you are not aware is a private bank owned mostly by Europeans.
They were never part of the government and were merely given a charter by Congress to be the central bank
Because of his opposition to a central bank, Jackson was the target of a number of attempts on his life, which he all survived.
Most who have opposed the Fed were eliminated which attests to their power and influence. The last president who started a move to get rid of the Fed was John Kennedy
and you know what happened to him. Similar things have happened to those who tried to usurp the dollar as the world currency in which oil is bought and sold,
You do not screw with the Fed and the dollar if you want to remain healthy.