Harriet Tubman To Replace Andrew Jackson On $20 Bill
WASHINGTON (CBS/AP) – Former President Andrew Jackson's portrait is coming off the $20 bill, the U.S. government has decided.
CBS News reported Wednesday that Jackson will be replaced on the currency by Harriet Tubman, the African-American abolitionist who escaped slavery and became a famous "conductor" on the underground railroad.
Frieda Garcia, chairwoman of the Friends of Harriet Tubman Park in Boston's South End, is thrilled by the news.
"It's wonderful because people are going to know about this extraordinary woman," she told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's upcoming announcement is expected to provide details on other changes being made to the $20, $10 and $5 bills.
The Treasury Department had originally planned to add a female face to the $10 bill, but many objected to replacing Alexander Hamilton following the smashing success of the Broadway musical named after him.
A 9-year-old from Massachusetts was one of the driving forces behind the push to put a woman on money. Sofia, a fourth grader, wrote to President Barack Obama with her suggestions of women to replace Jackson, and he told her in response that it was a "good idea."
An online group, Women on 20s, said it was encouraged that Lew was responding to its campaign to replace Jackson with a woman. But it said it would not claim victory unless Lew also committed to issuing the new $20 bill at the same time that the redesigned $10 bill is scheduled to be issued in 2020.
The $10 bill is the next note scheduled to be redesigned to introduce updated protections against counterfeiting. That redesign was scheduled to be unveiled in 2020, which marks the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote. Lew had often cited that connection as a reason to put a woman on the $10 bill.
The expectation is that Lew will propose replacing the Treasury building, now on the back of the $10 bill, with a mural-style depiction of the suffrage moment.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports
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