Harriet Tubman is going to be the new of face of the $20 bill, replacing former President Andrew Jackson—and becoming the first black American to ever appear on US paper currency.
The Civil War-era abolitionist, who led runaway slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad, will also be the first woman to appear on American paper money since Martha Washington was featured on a $1 silver certificate more than 100 years ago.
“The decision to Harriet Tubman on the new $20 bill was driven by thousands of responses we received from Americans young and old,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew explained Wednesday, saying the new bills should be ready for release by 2020. The Treasury Department also announced that Alexander Hamilton will remain on the front of the $10 bill, but that members of the women’s suffrage movement—including Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul—will be added to the back.
Depictions of civil-rights leaders and moments that helped shape American history ill be incorporated onto the back of the $5 bill, as well.
Plans were originally floated to redesign the $10 bill to replace Hamilton with a portrait of a female historical figure, but the idea sparked outrage among fans of the Founding Father—some of whom came out of the woodwork due to the popularity of the hip-hop Broadway musical about his life. Hamilton was also founder of The Post.
Critics, instead, suggested it was Jackson who deserved to be booted off the $20 bill, citing the former slave owner’s role in moving Native Americans off their land in the 1830s.
An online petition posted by the advocacy group “Women on 20s” last year urged the administration to replace the 19th century president with Tubman and offered a mocked-up version.
More than 118,000 of the 609,000 people surveyed for the petition chose the Maryland-born former slave to be the face of the $20 bill, with the goal of having it changed by 2020—the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.
When asked about the irony of putting someone who wasn’t paid for her services, Lew said it “reflects both American values and American democracy, but also, the power of an individual, to make a difference in our democracy.”
There are 8.6 billion $20 bills currently in circulation.
nypost.com
Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill
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