On April 20th, Treasury Secretary Jacob L. Lew announced a few changes for US currency. Replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill would be the former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Women and civil rights leaders would be added to the backs of the $5 and $10 bills.
The face of a woman hasn't been on currency since the late 19th century with Martha Washington. Now, we are celebrating with not only Harriet Tubman, but women's rights leaders such as Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Civil rights leaders such as Marian Anderson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be gracing the back of the $5 bill.
After announcing that changes would be made to US currency, the feminist group Women of the 20's insisted the Harriet Tubman go on the more common $20 bill and replace the increasingly-unpopular Jackson.
Other groups wanted changes to be made to the $10 bill, but after the explosion of the musical" Hamilton," the first Secretary of the Treasury's position was firmly secured.
Despite some protest, Lew compromised and made the final decision to put Harriet Tubman on the face of the $20 bill and woman and civil rights leaders on the backs of the $5 and $10 bills.
These actions show how the government is willing to allow someone who wasn't involved in US politics to become one of the faces of our country. Harriet Tubman was revolutionary in the fight for civil and human rights, and it's amazing to see other leaders being honored in similar ways.
Residents of the US can expect to have these new bills in their pockets by 2030.
