The United States Treasury will announce on Wednesday that Harriet Tubman is replacing President Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill.
Update: The Treasury Department has revealed additional details about the refreshed bills..
- The back of the $10 will “feature an image of the historic march for suffrage that ended on the steps of the Treasury Department and honor the leaders of the suffrage movement – Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Paul.”
- The back of the $5 bill will depict Marian Anderson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr., who were all involved in prominent events at the Lincoln Memorial.
- President Andrew Jackson is moving to the back of the $20 bill. As noted below, Tubman is replacing him on the front.
Original story: Last year the Treasury Department announced that they were considering replacing founding father Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill with a woman, and asked citizens to use the hashtag #TheNew10 to nominate women who they think should be featured. We at Hypable nominated a few women in fandom, but since then the Treasury has come up with a better idea to refresh their currency.
Thanks in part to Hamilton the Musical creator Lin-Manuel Miranda having a talk with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Hamilton is now safe on the $10, but the back of the bill will add “leaders of the movement to give women the right to vote on the back of the bill,” Politico reports.
In addition, Harriet Tubman will replace President Andrew Jackson — a President and slave owner — on the new $20 bill. Finally, the $5 will receive a refresh — the bill will “depict civil rights era leaders.” No word yet on who exactly they’ll include.
The front of the new $20 will bear the portrait of Harriet Tubman, whose life was dedicated to fighting for liberty. pic.twitter.com/8lAEkoD78p
— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) April 20, 2016
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Harriet Tubman — a woman, a person of color, and a progressive activist — is a great choice for the $20. She was born into slavery and later helped rescue those who were enslaved with help from the Underground Railroad. She’s been recognized as an American icon thanks to her role as an abolitionist. And it’s just too perfect that she’ll be replacing Jackson, who was a slave owner.
Head over to Slate to read more on why Jackson being on the $20 bill is was a problem.
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