When the Republican front-runner, instead of using the Harriet Tubman news as an opportunity to celebrate an American icon, takes the chance to slam “political correctness”, it’s one other incident that reinforces this impression.
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Originally, the treasury department was supposed to replace Alexander Hamilton, the first USA treasurer and the founder of the city of Paterson, on the $10 bill with a woman. So, I’m happy that it’s Harriet Tubman, but it could have very easily been someone else.
Sofia wrote a letter to President Obama two years ago asking why there were not any women represented on US paper currency, her mother Kim told ABC News today. Famed for her role in the so-called “underground railroad”, she helped slaves from the states in the South to cross to the North. Carson didn’t seem too thrilled about the move, and called Jackson a “tremendous” President before suggesting that maybe the $2 bill would’ve been the better place to honor Tubman. “I know I speak for everyone here when I say how much we value Sofia’s ongoing dedication to this cause”.
“You could argue that there were hundreds of Harriet Tubmans, but there was only one real Harriet Tubman in terms of the one who would ultimately receive the kind of acclaim and notoriety as she did”. And I read it just this morning. Lew said that image could depict the statue of Jackson riding horseback in Lafayette Square across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.
On Wednesday, the movement’s leaders said they were “ready to claim victory” but only if the bill was issued by 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Jackson is remembered as a populist president who was responsible for forcibly removing American Indians from their land. A series of suffrage leaders will appear on the back of the $10 bill.
“When I first heard about Women on $20s, the unofficial contest to get a woman’s face on a $20 bill, I thought it sounded great: dudes have occupied greenbacks for centuries in the US”.
Robert Watson, assistant professor of history at Hampton University.
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“This gesture sends a powerful message, because of the tendency in American history, the background of excluding women and marginalizing them as national symbols”, said Riche Richardson, associate professor in the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University.
