By: Serennah Thomas
Have you heard about it being a new $20 bill that will be surfacing the world soon? Well that’s what we expect to be in due time. We are expected to see a new bill in 2030. 14 years from now? It has been a long time coming but 2030 is a very long time. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced Wednesday April 20, 2016 that there will be a change from Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill to Harriet Tubman, the former African American slave and abolitionist, Lew stated that Jackson would still be on the back of the bill. It’s interesting to know that the back of the $10 bill will now feature leaders in the movement to give women the right to vote, and a reconditioned $5 bill will feature leaders of the civil rights era. Such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Marian Anderson on the $5 bill and Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony on the $10 bill just to name a few. The final decision would be up to the Fed.
Harriet Tubman was an influential women in history. She was born into slavery and was wise enough to where she later escaped and subsequently was able to get through thirteen missions where she was able to rescue enslaved families and friends using the Underground Railroad.
There are Feminist activists called Women on 20s who have been calling for a change to have a women on a bill. Vox.com Matt Yglesias argued that Jackson deserves to be replaced regardless because of his pro-slavery advocacy, his genocidal actions against Native Americans and his opposition to paper money as a policy. Vox also stated that advocates argue that it’s problematic to put Tubman on the $20 at all, given her opposition to slavery as a capitalist enterprise. “Tubman didn’t respect America’s economic system, so making her a symbol of it would be insulting,” Feminista Jones wrote in the Washington Post last year.
It’s a great thing to know that we as Americans can actually say that things in history are actually changing.
Charity Lewis a female student that attends the University of South Fla gave her opinion of a women being on a $20 bill and she says that “It’s about time! Women have played a significant role in the development of America. Our acknowledgment is way past due”.
A resident in Orlando FL Rick Thomas had an opinion and stated that he felt it was a good thing there’s a change that is happening and it’s great that a Women was being recognized and will be seen every day to show the impact she had in history.
Serennah Thomas can be reached @serennah@theseminolescribe.com