Thursday, March 28, 2024

Harriet Tubman Tops Poll For Being the First Woman on a $20 Bill

Harriet-Tubman_$20 bill*The people have spoken.

And from the looks of a new poll, Harriet Tubman is the top choice for being the first woman on the $20 bill.

Tubman is noted for using the Underground Railroad to help hundreds of slaves escape to freedom. According to The Huffington Post, the abolitionist received 33.6 percent of the 352,431 votes cast in the final round of a 10-week poll conducted by Women On 20s, a nonprofit group that is working to replace President Andrew Jackson with a woman on a $20 bill.

Overall, more than 600,000 people voted in the poll, which saw Eleanor Roosevelt come in second, followed by Rosa Parks and Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller.

“Our paper bills are like pocket monuments to great figures in our history,” Women On 20s Executive Director Susan Ades Stone said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our work won’t be done until we’re holding a Harriet $20 bill in our hands in time for the centennial of women’s suffrage in 2020.”

In addition, the organization announced plans to launch an online campaign to urge the White House to adopt the changes. According to Stone, a redesign of the $20 bill could easily be done with the White House instructing Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to make it happen.

“I think it’s really a very easy thing for the White House to do if they decide that they want to do it,” Stone told the Post.

The notion of putting a woman on the $20 bill triggered a positive reaction from President Barack Obama, who labeled it as a “pretty good idea.”

The results of the poll come amid Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) introducing legislation in their respective chambers of Congress last month to put a woman on the bill.

With the legislation, Stone feels momentum to her group’s campaign is present in light of support for the idea displayed in Congress. As a result, Stone stated that it is a “no-brainer” put a woman on a $20 bill as simply a matter of shining a light on contributions made by women to the United States.

“Men and women really built this country and it’s just that the women have been in the background,” she said. “This is a chance to bring women into the foreground and recognize them for what they’ve accomplished and to show young people that if you make sacrifices and dedicate yourself to something, you will be recognized for it the same that a man would be.”

For coverage of the women on the $20 bill issue and Tubman’s poll victory, check out the video below:

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