Elijah Cummings Reintroduces Legislation to Put Harriet Tubman on $20 Bill; She Should Be on a Reintroduced $1,000 Bill

Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, and John Katko, a New York Republican, have reintroduced legislation to require the Treasury Department to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. Tubman would replace President Andrew Jackson’s portrait, reports the Baltimore Sun.

Going all in on intersectionality, Cummings said in a statement that “Too often, our nation does not do enough to honor the contributions of women in American history, especially women of color. Placing Harriet Tubman on our U.S. currency would be a fitting tribute to a woman who fought to make the values enshrined in our Constitution a reality for all Americans.”

Asked by the Sun whether the Treasury Department would be putting Harriet Tubman’s face on the bill by 2020, a spokeswoman referred to comments made by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at the Washington Economic Club in January 2018, in which he said, “We haven’t made any decisions.”

The spokeswoman said Mnuchin’s position remains the same, and added “that the primary focus when changing the currency is on developing new security features to prevent counterfeiting.”

From Wikipedia:

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. January 29, 1822– March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped abolitionist John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the United States Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the struggle for women's suffrage...

In honor of her courageous efforts to rescue family and friends from slavery, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison named her "Moses", alluding to the prophet in the Book of Exodus who led the Hebrews to freedom from Egypt.Though nicknamed "Moses", Tubman's daring missions to Maryland remained virtually unknown, and her identity was a carefully guarded secret.

I think the best move would be to leave Jackson on the $20 bill and reintroduce the one thousand dollar bill with Tubman on it as a tribute to financial freedom.

-RW