$20 change a reflection of values
Tubman the leading face of a redesign effort to include women, minorities on currency
Move over, Andrew Jackson. Abolitionist and women’s rights crusader Harriet Tubman will replace the former president on the front of the $20 bill, becoming the first African-American to appear on U.S. currency, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced Wednesday.
But the U.S. did not throw away its shot to keep founding father Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first secretary of the Treasury, on the $10 bill. Lew said Hamilton, who was originally considered for replacement with a female figure, will remain on the front of the redesigned $10 bill after months of backlash led by rabid fans of the Pulitzer Prize-winning hip-hop musical “Hamilton.”
“There’s no way you can replace Alexander Hamilton right now,” said actor Aldis Hodge, who stars in “Underground,”
a television show about the Underground Railroad. “What the Treasury did is show you can do both: You can keep Hamilton on the 10 and put women on dollars where men have maintained space for so long.”
The back of the new $10 note will feature female activists who fought for women’s rights and suffrage like Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the back of a newly designed $5 bill will depict the Civil Rights movement in moments from the Lincoln Memorial that included Eleanor Roosevelt, AfricanAmerican opera singer Marian Anderson and Martin Luther King Jr.
“It’s quite a great day for women and young people and everyone ... that we can see currency that looks a little more like our country does,” said Barbara Ortiz Howard, founder of grassroots organization Women on 20s. “I never anticipated this movement having so much life or being able to bring so many people together.”
The announcement Wednesday was met with glee from politicians, activists, artists and “Hamilton” fans who shared their reactions on social media. “Harriet Tubman” trended on Facebook and Twitter throughout the day. ‘Fascinating’ impact
Emily Nahmanson, the founder of Hamiltunes SF, an event at which participants sing along to songs from the musical, said the musical has somehow transferred fans’ affections from the play onto the founding father himself.
She said it’s “fascinating” to see how the musical is impacting American culture as a whole while applauding Tubman’s placement as the new face of the $20 bill.
Putting a woman on the $20 bill is a greater victory than it would have been on the $10 bill, Howard said, because the note is more widely circulated and has a greater significance.
“One of the reasons we were so keen on the 20 is because it’s in circulation four times as much as any other bill; it comes out of our ATMs, and it’s used internationally,” Howard said. “This is our way to reach more people than ever before and show them that we stand for freedom.”
Proponents also applauded the federal government’s decision to replace Jackson, a slave trader who opposed paper money and led the deadly removal of several Native American Indian tribes from their homelands in the southern United States, with a freed slave who dedicated her life to helping others find freedom.
Tubman, best known for her efforts leading dozens of others to freedom along a secret path of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad, is the second woman to appear on the front of U.S. paper money. The likeness of Martha Washington, wife of first president and founding father George Washington, briefly adorned a $1 bill issued in 1886 that was discontinued by the turn of the century.
Lew said Tubman, who also served as a Union army spy during the Civil War and spoke out for women’s right to vote, is someone who “reflects both American values and American democracy but also the power of an individual to make a difference in our democracy.”
“I can’t wait for the first time a little 6-year-old black girl looks at a $20 bill and she sees a black woman on it,” Hodge said. “It changes the way you see black culture in America, the way you see yourself and your value. We understand currency as a place that is typically reserved for those in political power — royalty, people of affluent standing — and here we have Ms. Tubman, runaway slave. What does that tell you about her legacy? About her impact?”
The Treasury considered public opinion in its redesign and received nominations naming more than 200 notable women whom Americans said they would like to see on currency.
The list included women from a broad range of backgrounds, such as jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, first female casualty of the Iraq war Lori Piestewa and photographer Margaret BourkeWhite. Timetable for new bills
The new bills are still being designed, though Lew said the Treasury hopes to unveil them by 2020 — in time for the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted American women the right to vote.
It was not immediately clear when the bills would be released into circulation, with some supporters of the new design worrying it would take until 2030 for the bills to become widely used. Lew said he has issued an expedited release for the bills to speed up the process.
The $10 bill was the only note up for redesign in 2020, a regular process meant to prevent counterfeiting, but an online campaign started by Women on 20s pushing to put a woman’s face on the new $20 bill in 2020 to mark the anniversary of women’s suffrage moved up the Treasury’s timeline.
The group, which held its own election to determine which woman it should be, received more than 600,000 votes. Tubman won.
The decision drew wide support.
“A woman, a leader, a freedom fighter,” tweeted presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, “I can’t think of a better choice for the $20 bill than Harriet Tubman.”
Howard said there is still more work to be done to U.S. currency to make the nation’s money more reflective of its populace and values, such as including images of American Indian history.
Last month, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote and stars in “Hamilton” the musical, spoke with Lew oneon-one about preserving the legacy of the “10-dollar founding father,” as Miranda’s work describes him.
In a tweet, Miranda said the secretary promised “Hamilton” fans would be “very happy” with the redesign.
On Wednesday, Miranda tweeted his reaction: “Thrilled about all of it,” Miranda wrote.
Of course, not everyone was enthused by Tubman’s promotion to the face of the $20 bill.
Former presidential candidate Ben Carson said Tubman would be better off on the $2 bill.
He said Jackson, “a tremendous president,” deserves to remain on the front of the note.