News

Harriet Tubman Will Reportedly Be The New Face Of The $20 Bill

by Alexandra Svokos
Wikimedia Commons

Harriet Tubman is going to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, according to POLITICO.

US Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew will reportedly announce the news on Wednesday.

The face of the former president is expected to remain on the back of the newly designed $20 bill, but Tubman will now be the front.

This change comes after months and months of campaigning to get women featured on American currency. A nonprofit campaign called Women on 20s has been fighting for a woman to be put on the bill. This will be a major victory, clearly, for the group's work.

Women on 20s ran a poll in 2015 to see which woman people would most like to see on the bill. Tubman won that poll, which also included Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks.

Originally, Lew was considering changing the $10 bill, which features Alexander Hamilton, but that plan got criticized. Beyond being the origin of the hit musical "Hamilton," the real-life Hamilton was also instrumental in forming how the US economy works.

Other bills will be facing changes, as well. Apparently, the back of the $10 bill will start featuring leaders of the women's suffrage movement who helped get women the right to vote.

The $5 bill will reportedly begin to feature leaders of the civil rights movement.

Tubman was a leader in the effort to end slavery during the 19th century. She was born into slavery and escaped using the Underground Railroad. After gaining her own freedom, Tubman turned around and helped other slaves escape.

Jackson, on the other hand, was a slave owner. He owned approximately 150 slaves by the time he died in 1845. They worked on his 1,000-acre plantation, The Hermitage, in Tennessee.

But, don't get too excited yet. The new bills won't be out for quite a while. The process to issue new bills is long and arduous. We all may not see the new $20 until 2030, according to CNN.

Citations: Hamilton to stay on $10, Jackson getting replaced by Tubman (POLITICO), Harriet Tubman To Replace Andrew Jackson On $20 Bill (Huffington Post), Andrew Jackson's Enslaved Laborers (The Hermitage), Jack Lew nears decision to keep Hamilton on front of $10 bill, put a woman on the $20 (CNN)