UPDATE Wednesday, April 20, 2016: Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will announce Wednesday that abolitionist Harriet Tubman will replace former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.
The long-awaited decision keeps Alexander Hamilton, one of the U.S. founding fathers, on the front of the $10 bill — though suffragists who fought to give women the right to vote are expected to be added to the back of the bill.
Civil rights leaders are expected to go on the $5 bill.
Alexander Hamilton supporters will have their way and the U.S. Founding Father, will maintain his position on the $10 bill. The Native American community has had their say and the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, will be replaced. Treasury secretary Jacob Lew originally wanted to replace Hamilton, the founder of our nation’s treasury system and thus our first treasury secretary, but Jackson’s negative history with Native Americans led to public pressure to replace him.
The smash Broadway, hip-hop musical, Hamilton, is even been touted as one the reasons Hamilton won’t be replaced.
Jackson will be replaced with the portrait of a woman who significantly impacted our struggle for racial equality. Due to measures to prohibit counterfeiting, the bill won’t begin to circulate until 2030.
Additional changes will be made to another note.
The back of the $5 bill will show a mural of prominent moments that have taken place at the Lincoln Memorial.
This suggestion has gained criticism from Women on 20s, an advocacy group that launched the campaign and declared that America needs the face of a woman on its currency and that woman should be an abolitionist. In an open letter to secretary Lew, they write in part: “After your appearance on Charlie Rose, we carefully parsed your words, and we fear that you believe the public will be satisfied with giving women nothing but a cameo role on the back of a minor bill. It will take a microscope to see who those individuals are, and we’ll be left with another decade or more of woefully inadequate representation of women and their worth.”
The results of a poll the conducted revealed abolitionist Harriet Tubman is the top choice. Tubman led slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad.
Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on the bus passenger and a catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, made it to the final round of voting.
Our nation’s first, first lady, Martha Washington, appeared on the $1 silver certificate from 1891-1896. U.S. bills have not featured a woman as a central image since.
Sound off it in the comments section below and share who you believe will be selected when the announcement will be made this week.
