As noted earlier this week, the Treasury will be placing a woman on the front of a redesigned $20 bill. And the choice, as many hoped, is the fierce and fearless Harriet Tubman, a former slave who returned to the South to free some 300 slaves before the Civil War led to legal freedom for them all.
While not everyone on the left approves of the choice, the selection of Tubman has brought widespread cheers. She epitomizes resistance to injustice. People who walk the walk at the risk of their lives are all too rare. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination tweeted: "A woman, a leader, and a freedom fighter. I can't think of a better choice for the $20 bill than Harriet Tubman." Bernie Sanders tweeted: “I cannot think of an American hero more deserving of this honor than Harriet Tubman.”
Meanwhile, in great part due to an outpouring of public sentiment, Alexander Hamilton will remain on the newly designed $10.
There’s another bit of good news, too. Previous reports speculated that given the design times and anti-counterfeiting measures that are a necessary part of every bill, Tubman might not appear on the $20 until 2030 because the new $5 and $10 bills would come out first, even though citizen supporters of the revamp of the $20 are eager to see it happen by 2020 in time for the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. Reports Wednesday indicate that an earlier roll-out might be the case.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew decided to redesign all three notes to accommodate the various views, and sooner. As for the choice of Tubman, he said that in the public comments he reviewed each night, “the pattern became clear that Harriet Tubman struck a chord with people in all parts of the country, of all ages.” On Wednesday, he said:
Due to security needs, the redesigned $10 note is scheduled to go into circulation next. I have directed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to work closely with the Federal Reserve to accelerate work on the new $20 and $5 notes. Our goal is to have all three new notes go into circulation as quickly as possible, while ensuring that we protect against counterfeiting through effective and sophisticated production.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the New Hampshire Democrat who introduced a bill in 2015 in support of putting a woman on the $20, released a statement urging :
“Harriet Tubman’s fight for equality and freedom embodies the American spirit and she deserves to be featured beside our founding fathers. Having a woman prominently on the face of the twenty will finally send a powerful message on our currency about the important role women have played in our nation’s history. Women have waited long enough, and I will urge the Treasury Department to look at every possible option to expedite the release date of this new bill.”
Grassroots organizing deserves much of the credit for making this happen. The group Women on 20s got the project rolling online. They encouraged 600,000 people to sign a petition asking that a woman be depicted on the front of the $20 to replace the genocidal Andrew Jackson, known for his savage treatment of Indians both as a general and as a president. Thanks to Jackson’s implementation of removal policies, thousands of Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee and Seminoles died of exposure and starvation when they were force-marched to what would become Oklahoma.
Women on 20s also polled supporters on line, asking them to choose who should appear on the new $20 from among 15 women. Tubman edged out Eleanor Roosevelt.
When Treasury officials announced last year that a woman would be placed on the $10 bill, which was next in line for a redo, the group accepted this. But when the general public got wind of of this, the objections were plentiful. Removing Hamilton touched a nerve. And then came the popularity of the prize-winning musical “Hamilton,” which added more heft to the complaints.
When Women on 20s learned that Lew had decided to keep Hamilton on the front of the new $10 and put a vignette of suffragists on the reverse, they weren’t at all happy. And seeing the CNN reports that the new $20 might not appear until 2030 irked them even more. They urged supporters to flood Treasury with objections that women were being asked once again to “wait their turn.”
The news today sparked the posting of a press release on the group’s website:
“We are delighted that the parties involved in the decision are united in their commitment to the goal of honoring women in this most visible fashion,” said Women On 20s Founder Barbara Ortiz Howard. “It’s high time to get the party started.”
Women On 20s Executive Director Susan Ades Stone added, “We had been looking to this Treasury Secretary to put a woman front and center as soon as possible and powerfully inspire the quest for gender equality going forward. Today’s announcement is an important step in moving us closer to that goal.”