Harriet Tubman wins online poll to replace Jackson on $20 bill
America wants Tubman on the twenty.
A grassroots group that
wants a woman on the $20 bill announced that abolitionist Harriet Tubman took the top spot in a poll that asked who should be pictured on the currency.
The organization Women on 20s started its campaign earlier this year. The group asked voters to decide which famous female it should nominate to replace the bills current face, former president Andrew Jackson.
Tubman edged out former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks in the 600,000-voter strong poll. The three finalists were selected in a primary poll meant to narrow down a list of 15 notable women.
Women on 20s will now present its petition to the White House. Changing U.S. currency requires an order from the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury which can be directed by President Obama,
the group explained.
Tubman, a leading abolitionist during the Civil War, was born into slavery but escaped to Philadelphia in 1849.
She became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, traveling back and forth between the South and the North to help others out of slavery. She also provided intelligence to Union forces during the Civil War. After the war, she pushed for womens rights.
Currently the only women on U.S. currency are suffragist Susan B. Anthony and Indian guide Sacagawea, who both grace rarely used $1 coins. Martha Washington briefly appeared on $1 certificates in 1886, 1891 and 1896 but other than that, paper currency has been all-male.
Jackson, America's seventh president, has been on the $20 since 1929. Women on 20s hopes to have him replaced by 2020 the year the U.S. will mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
backed the campaign last month.
Its long overdue for that reflection to include the contributions of women, the New Hampshire Democrat said in a statement. The incredible grassroots support for this idea shows that theres strong support for a woman to be the new face of the twenty dollar bill.
