Former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman will be the face of the new $20 bill, the Treasury Department announced on Wednesday, making her the first African American featured paper currency and the first woman in over a century.
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The debate over whether he deserves a place on the front of American paper currency is a discussion “not only about what happened in history, but how we ought to treat it, how we ought to recognize it, and what things we ought to honor – or not honor”, Feller said.
Ohio Governor John Kasich said he approved putting Tubman’s image on the $20 bill, saying she “changed the world” by acting to change injustice.
Politico also reported that changes are in store for the $5 bill as well.
Many Americans still celebrate Jackson for his victory over the British during the War of 1812. Trump said replacing Jackson with Tubman is “pure political correctness”.
Perhaps because of the smash Broadway play bearing his name, which this week won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Alexander Hamilton, who was targeted for replacement on the $10 bill by a woman, gets a reprieve.
Ben Carson, a former Republican presidential candidate who is now supporting Trump, agreed with the businessman, calling Jackson a “tremendous president”.
“Dismayed and disappointed would be two words we would use to describe the decision”, said Howard J. Kittell, president and CEO of the Andrew Jackson Foundation in Nashville. “But within his historical period, that was within the mainstream thinking”.
“At the time, there were alternatives, there were congressmen who suggested alternatives”.
WBFO’s Chris Caya reports on Harriet Tubman’s role in national and local history. “The Indian Removal Act was contested, there were lots of folks who opposed it”. Tubman’s position on the $20 bill will provide an opportunity for inclusivity and will also eliminate the problematic Andrew Jackson from his position on the front.
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Despite Tubman’s service for the Union, which included scouting for a raid that freed more than 700 slaves, it was not until 1899, more than 30 years after the Civil War ended and after repeated requests and congressional action, that she received a military pension based on her own merits. Contributors include Associated Press writers Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee; and Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona.
