America Wants Harriet Tubman On $20 Bill
#DearMrPresident:
America has finally spoken. They want Harriet Tubman to be the face of our $20 bill.
Currently, our currency is all male and all white. A campaign called Women on 20s hopes to change that in the near future, so much so that they began a petition to replace Andrew Jackson on the bill.
Much of the conversation advocating for change stemmed from Jackson’s racist tendencies. Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and also was a slave owner, which makes replacing him with Harriet Tubman, the creator of the Underground Railroad, a perfectly ironic fit.
Not only did Harriet Tubman help thousands of African-Americans escape from the horrors of slavery, she was also a scout for the Union during the Civil War.
Two rounds of voting were held by Women on 20s. After the first round of voting, four finalists remained: civil rights activist Rosa Parks, Cherokee chief Wilma Mankiller, abolitionist Harriet Tubman, and Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
The finalists were documented by the Inquisitr in April, when only 60,000 votes had been counted, Tubman was in the lead then, as well.
After all the votes were tallied, Tubman won with 118,328 votes. Roosevelt came in second place, with 111,227 votes.
For this petition to be acted upon, the Secretary of the Treasury, Jack Lew, would have to make the change, not Congress.
Jack Lew was appointed by President Obama after reelection and confirmed by the Senate in 2013.
Women on 20s hopes that the more than 600,000 votes that were placed by our citizens in this online campaign can convince the President to consider making the much-needed change.
Legislation to make Jackson’s replacement a reality has already been introduced in Washington.
Just last month, President Obama mentioned in a speech that he thought a woman on a bill was a pretty good idea in response to a letter he received from a young girl asking for change.
The Women on 20s campaign gained momentum last month when it gained support from Luis Gutierrez, a Democratic representative from Illinois calling for a woman to be introduced on the $20 bill.
President Obama may be influenced by similar changes in other countries. The Bank of England announced in 2013 that it would feature Jane Austen on the upcoming 10-pound note, replacing Charles Darwin.
“Our paper bills are like pocket monuments to great figures in our history,” Susan Ades Stone, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “Our work won’t be done until we’re holding a Harriet $20 bill in our hands in time for the centennial of women’s suffrage in 2020.”
[Image Source: Women on 20s/Yahoo]
