Harriet Tubman 20's

By: Grace Burns

They say that money talks. Unfortunately, in the United States of America, money reverberates a dark, elitist, and often single story. This narrative includes the very figureheads pictured on the United States Dollars.

The $20 bill, in specific, pictures former President Andrew Jackson. President Jackson has fallen under great controversy among historians, and is considered by some to be, “America’s worst president”, according to Vox.

President Jackson’s controversial actions included the mass removal of over 50,000 American Indians from their land in the south in the name of white settlement, as well as enslaving hundreds of African Americans and enforcing slavery on a national level, according to History.com.

In an effort to mitigate praise of such a controversial figure, the Biden Administration has announced the removal of President Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill. He will be replaced with American abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman notably rescued over 70 former slaves on the Underground Railroad. She also served as a nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War, making her the first African American woman to serve in the military, according to the National Women’s History Museum. She would notably be the first woman and person of color featured on American currency.

According to CNN, this symbolic choice to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill is representative of the acknowledgement of the wealth that black Americans have created for the United States.

This initiative was originally introduced under the Obama Administration and was set to be introduced and implemented in 2020, but was halted during the Trump Administration. Former United States Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin said, in 2016, that their administration intended to postpone the circulation until 2028.

Former President Jackson has been notably praised by former President Trump, stating that Jackson, “...had a great history...it’s very rough when you take somebody off the bill.” Former President Trump also had Jackson’s portrait hanging in the Oval Office, and a model figure of himself, according to the New York Times.

The halt in circulation has been met with backlash from multiple members of Congress, including Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts.

At a hearing in May of 2019, Representative Pressley raised the issue publicly, stating that, “Secretary Mnuchin has allowed Trump’s racism and misogyny to prevent him from carrying out the will of the people.”