African-American Slave Freedom Fighter, Harriet Tubman, Becomes First Woman On US $20 Bill

Harriet Tubman

History was made on Wednesday April 20, as the US Treasury Department announced that Harriet Tubman, an African-American who ferried hundreds of slaves to freedom, will replace the slaveholding Andrew Jackson on the center of the $20 bill.

Tubman escaped slavery only to risk her life by returning to the South to lead other slaves to freedom.

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Other depictions of women and civil rights leaders will also be part of new currency designs.

The new designs, from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, would be made public in 2020 in time for the centennial of woman’s suffrage and the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. None of the bills, including a new $5 note, would reach circulation until the next decade.

Images of women are also expected to grace the back of the new bill, with Ms. Tubman taking the top spot on a redesigned $20 further into the future.

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From a black man in the White House to a black woman’s face on a dollar bill – look how far we’ve come!