It’s about time a woman will grace the front of our nation’s currency, and that woman is Harriet Tubman.
She will crash the boys’ club that is the U.S. monetary system by appearing on the front of the $20 bill, pushing controversial President Andrew Jackson to the back of the bill.
The $10 bill will also get a facelift with the leaders of women’s rights movements featured on the back of the bill. Treasurer secretary Jack Lew announced these additions to the currency Wednesday.
Adding a woman to our nation’s currency is long overdue, but I wonder why Harriet Tubman was the choice.
I am not angry Tubman will be featured on the bill, but I question the motive. Undoubtedly, Tubman has a great legacy as a slave-turned-abolitionist, but it is a very one-sided story, and many facts are left out about Tubman in our regular history classes.
For example, many people don’t know Tubman used the rifle she carried to not only intimidate pro-slavery people they might encounter, but also for shooting any slaves who wanted to defect to their plantation.
Although having Tubman on the front is monumental and will be great for women, especially black women, I feel Tubman was an easy choice to appease women, especially African American women.
They’re tons of other women throughout American history who would have been a great choice, but Tubman was the lazy choice.
Tubman has done tons for African Americans and contributed to the building of this great nation. However, so have some others who are not as well known.
Maya Angelou, Sojourner Truth and Rosa Parks are some worthy women, just to name a few. My personal choice would have been Maya Angelou. Her writings and poetry are a major part of American literature and words that continue to live on, even though she does not.
With that said, Tubman, although a lazy choice, is still a good one, and I can’t wait to see the first Tubman $20.
