Abolitionist Harriet Tubman will replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 note, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced last Wednesday.
As a civil war activist and conductor of the Underground Railroad, Tubman is one of the most influential liberators of our nation's history. Long over due is the presence of her strength and perseverance on our currency.
Last June, Treasury Department secretary Jacob Lew proposed the $10 note to feature a woman, replacing President Alexander Hamilton on the front of the bill. According to USA Today, Lew has noticed the current popularity with Hamilton in lieu of the success of the broadway play, "What we’ve been doing on the currency and what they’ve been doing on the show were really quite complementary."
However, that original plan changed slightly when Lew came across Catherine Clinton's "Harriet Tubman: The Road To Freedom" and realized that Tubman was a much more prominent character in America's history than originally thought. Tubman was born into slavery, escaped, conducted the Underground Railroad, and according to Clinton, "It took her 30 years to get her pension from the government, because she was a spy and a scout and she worked behind enemy lines."
As a result of this newfound knowledge of Tubman, the Treasury decided to feature her on the front of $20 note. Hamilton will still be integrated into the back image of the White House. Other prominent changes are taking place as well:
The $5 note will still feature President Abraham Lincoln on the front but the back will be adjusted so as to depict two defining moments in American history that took place at the Lincoln Memorial: opera singer Marian Anderson's 1939 performance and Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have A Dream" speech.
The back of the $10 note will honor the women's suffrage movement (which resulted in the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote in 1920) by featuring prominent females such as Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth,
These alterations to the $5, $10, and $20 bills signify a change in American's attitude toward women's roles (including those of color) in government. Announced just shortly after Equal Pay Day, a sector of the government is taking a massive (much needed) leap and putting men and women on the same, equal level.
Maybe this will spark an infectious advancement throughout the United States government: women are just as smart, strong, powerful and able to make change as men. Whether you believe us or not, there is no stoping us.
