Harriet Tubman to Be Placed on $20 Bill: Decides Treasury
This Wednesday, Jacob Lew, the Treasury Secretary announced that the face of Harriet Tubman, abolitionist leader will adorn a new $20 bill.
The conclusion caps a public campaign demanding for a woman to be sited on United States’ paper currency and deliberation months by the Treasury to swap either Andrew Jackson on $20 bill or Alexander Hamilton on $10 note.
In a letter to the US people, Lew said, “With this decision, our currency will now tell more of our story and reflect the contributions of women as well as men to our great democracy”.
The founding director of Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American Culture and History, Lonnie Bunch says that the decision also depicts the diversity of America. Bunch said that for him, having Tubman on $20 bill truly said, first of all, that US realized it was not the same country it had used to be once— rather it was a country where diversity really contained importance. “And it allows us to make a hero out of someone like Harriet Tubman, who deserves to be a hero,” he said.
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The Treasury made another announcement in a statement that the new $20 bill will hold an expression of Jackson, a slaveholder, on its back. The new $10 note will possess Hamilton on the front while at its back it will feature “an expression of the momentous march for suffrage that finished on the ladders of the Treasury Department.” The image will honor the Leaders of that effort — Alice Paul, Elizabeth Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and Lucretia Mott.
Last year, Women on 20s, the activist group’s unofficial contest provided the signal to Tubman to replace Jackson’s on the $20 note. A petition was sent later by the campaign to President Obama.
It had been previously said by the Treasury that a new $10 bill would be featuring a woman. But Broadway show Hamilton’s fame might have put a full stop to that idea. Hamilton creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, personally promoted Lew and later a meeting held last month, he posted a tweet saying the Treasury secretary had expressed him “you’re going to be very happy.”
Lew also showed his choice expressing in an interview in March with Charlie Rose, stating that Alexander Hamilton was among his heroes. He was not going to leave their money. Hamilton was the 1st Treasury secretary of the country.