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Harriet Tubman to Share New $20 Bill with Andrew Jackson

HeadlineApr 21, 2016

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has announced new $20 bills will feature Harriet Tubman on the front, replacing former president and slave owner Andrew Jackson.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew: “Harriet Tubman is one of the great American stories. A woman born a slave, illiterate for her whole life, she brought many, many people out of slavery through the underground railroad by time and again risking her own life to save others. She did intelligence for our Army during the Civil War, after she worked to get the women’s suffrage movement going. It’s a great American story.”

The move came after more than a half a million people voted for Tubman to replace Jackson. But, in fact, Jackson will not be removed entirely, simply moved to the back of the bill. Some have criticized the idea that Harriet Tubman should represent U.S. currency at all. In a 2015 essay that went viral again yesterday, writer Feminista Jones wrote: “If having Harriet Tubman’s face on the $20 bill was going to improve women’s access to said bill, I’d be all for it. But instead, it only promises to distort Tubman’s legacy … [which] is rooted in resisting the foundation of American capitalism.”

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