US Treasury To Feature Harriet Tubman On $20 Bill (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Harriet Tubman will become the first African-American woman to be featured on the face of U.S. paper currency in more than a century. Tubman was born a slave and went on to become an anti-slavery crusader. Ironically, she will be replacing Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the U.S. and a slave owner. According to Wikipedia, "Jackson held as many as 44 [slaves] by 1820, and later held up to 150 slaves, making him among planter elite. Throughout his lifetime Jackson may have owned as many as 300 slaves." The decision to feature a woman on a bill started in part from a young girl's letter to President Obama about the lack of women on U.S. currency. A social media campaign "Women on 20s" then began pushing for a woman to replace Jackson on the currency early last year. Originally, the department announced it would feature a woman on the $10 bill instead of Alexander Hamilton. Now it's being reported Hamilton will stay on the front of the bill with a group of women on the back of it. Civil rights era leaders will reportedly be depicted in the new $5 bill.

Comments

I predict a shortage of $10 bills in the South

[JoeyRox]

The $10 bill will see a surge of use down there.

Re:Divisive and offensive

[WrongMonkey]

America is "obsessed" with slavery because the descendant of slaves were legally treated as second class citizen up until a generation ago and still continue to suffer economic and social repercussions to this day.

Re:We always need heroes

[ChrisMaple]

The Democrats were the party of slavery when they were founded in 1828, and remain the party of slavery to this very day. In 1896 with the leadership of William Jennings Bryan they also became the party of theft, a title that proudly lives on in Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.