Group lobbies to put Harriet Tubman’s face on the $20 bill
Rosa Parks.
Susan B. Anthony.
Eleanor Roosevelt.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Harriet Tubman.
Sojourner Truth.
Clara Barton.
Rachel Carson.
Wilma Mankiller.
Margaret Sanger.
These famous American women were all candidates in an unusual campaign to put the image of a woman on the $20 bill. Out with Andrew Jackson, and in with ...
Anyone of the 10 listed above can easily qualify for currency immortality. The grassroots organization Women on 20s conducted a poll and petition campaign to see whether it could persuade the government to make the change in five years.
The winner was Tubman, a former slave and conductor on the Underground Railroad who helped dozens of slaves to freedom.
“Our work won’t be done until we’re holding a Harriet $20 bill in our hands in time for the centennial of women’s suffrage in 2020,” said Susan Ades Stone, executive director of Women on 20s.
Read the full story at MyAJC.com, including more about Tubman's life and work.
About the Author
Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.
