White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced to reporters that the U.S. Treasury Department is resuming efforts to make abolitionist Harriet Tubman the new face of the $20 bill. This change was initially proposed during the Obama administration.

For some background, Tubman was an inspirational woman, born into slavery. Growing up on a Maryland plantation where she was kept as “property,” she was one of the lucky slaves who was able to escape. Even after escaping, she risked her life to return to the South and used the Underground Railroad so that she could help other slaves gain their freedom. She later had the well-known role of a Union spy during the Civil War. Her heroic story will be remembered forever.

This all began with an informal nationwide poll—where Tubman was unanimously chosen to be on the $20 bill, amongst many other women. This was the main trigger leading the Obama administration to call for putting her on the bill in 2016. Although this “new and improved” bill was planned to take place previously, the steps were held back due to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and former President Donald Trump, who commented that it would be “pure political correctness.” 

However, now that Joe Biden has taken his role as president, he has decided to focus on diversity; highlighting Harriet Tubman will be one of his first moves. 

“The legacy of Harriet Tubman and other Black Americans who built the nation we know today must be recognized and celebrated in our schools, culture and currency. The NAACP applauds the Biden administration’s announcement to change the design of the $20 bill to commemorate the full story of the significant figures in our history,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson.

Tubman will soon replace the current representative of the bill, Andrew Jackson, who was the seventh president of the United States. This is a huge achievement for many, since she will officially become the first woman on American paper currency since Martha Washington, who was on the $1 silver certificate from 1891 to 1896, and Pocahontas, who was included in a group on the $20 bill from 1865 to 1869. Now that the process has been scheduled, they are looking to 2025 for a high-speed printing facility to manufacture the bill’s transformation.

“The American people want our currency to better reflect the diversity of our great country. I look forward to working with the Biden-Harris administration, including the first-ever female Secretary of Treasury, Janet Yellen, to put a woman on the 20 and make the Tubman Twenty a reality,” said Joyce Beatty, Representative Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. 

Many have also voiced that this would be disrespectful to Tubman. Feminista Jones, an activist, author, and advocate, argued that this only shows the “unhealthy obsession” that Americans have associated with money. She expressed it didn’t make sense to use the image of someone who avidly fought for freedom on something that was associated with capitalist oppression.

“Why would we want to take her image and then make her the face of this thing that so many people lack access to? When people ask, ‘What is it that Black women want?’ We want our humanity to be acknowledged. We want to have dignity. We want people to see us as human beings, not as laborers, not as mules, not as servants to other people,” Jones said.

Others have spoken up as well, mainly through the use of social media apps like Twitter. 

“A woman who was traded as capital becoming the face of capital doesn’t sit right with my spirit… If you wanna honor Tubman there are much better ways to do so that would change the material benefits of people’s lives. Build schools, parks, a historical center, etc in her name. Putting her face on the 20 dollar bill isn’t even a feel good. It’s giving me the yucks,” said Ashley Stevens, a Black Twitter user with a large following.

While this will remain a long process with a lot of controversy, there are plans in place to make this a reality in the near future—in hopes of symbolizing our country’s history and diversity.

Photo courtesy of NYTIMES.COM