Lawmakers reviving efforts to get Harriet Tubman on $20 bill
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Remember that plan to replace the face on the $20 bill?
Back in 2016, President Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced the proposal to swap former President Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman.
Tubman would be the first African-American woman to appear on U.S. currency and the first woman in 100 years. The idea was to honor the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
The plan has since stalled. President Donald Trump is a fan of Andrew Jackson and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said as far as he’s concerned, Jackson will remain on the $20 bill, but some in Congress think otherwise.
“We don’t have a woman of color, we don’t have any person of color on any U.S. currency,” said Congressman John Katko, R-New York.
Katko says it’s far past time to fix that.
“It should not even be an issue, in my mind,” he added. “When the Trump administration came in it fell by the wayside.”
Katko introduced the Harriet Harriet Tubman Tribute Act of 2019, which would require the Treasury Department to put Tubman on the $20 by 2020.
Lisa Page, the interim Director of Africana Studies at George Washington University, says the move is not without controversy.
“I think Americans are still ashamed of the legacy of slavery and will continue to be ashamed of slavery,” Page said.
If the bill were to become a reality, according to Page, it would be a fitting tribute to a trailblazer for freedom and a patriotic American heroine.
“She was called Moses for all of her work in abolition,” Page added. “She was a spy for the Union army, she did all kinds of things to liberate blacks in America.”
Katko’s bill has support from Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate.