On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced that the face of the anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman will be on a new $20 bill. This news came due to a large national effort by “women on 20s” who advocated for a woman to be on the $20 to celebrate 100 years of the 19th amendment, ratified in 1920, that gave women the right to vote. This is a historic decision by the Treasure Secretary as this will be the first time in over a half-century that a woman will be featured on the US currency, and there has never been an African-American on paper money, and it’s time for an African-American woman to hold center stage. Replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 seems to be the decision the general population agrees with even though last year the Treasury Department proposed changing …show more content…
Tubman is most notoriously known as an abolitionist, her activism and efforts as a conductor on the Underground Railroad would have been enough to merit putting her on the $20, but she was also a nurse, recruiter, scout and a spy for the Union Army. She was the first woman to lead an armed raid during the Civil War. Harriet Tubman did not fight for capitalism, free trade, or competitive markets. She repeatedly put herself in the line of fire to free people who were treated as currency themselves. She risked her life to ensure that enslaved black people would know they were worth more than the blood money that exchanged hands to buy and sell them. Gracing her image on paper money will give way for educational opportunities about the achievements of Harriet Tubman. The dearth of knowledge concerning her accomplishments only further illustrates why she is the right choice to put on our currency. She is deserving as an individual and a symbol for all of those who suffered under slavery and those who continue to feel the consequences of America's original