Black woman’s face will stamp for the first time $20 bill

With information from Portal Geledés

The $ 20 bill, one of the most used in the U.S., is expected to change its face soon. After Joe Biden took office in January this year, he resumed an old project, created by Barack Obama in 2016, to replace Andrew Jackson’s effigy, which has been on the bill since 1928. The chosen one is a black woman, the activist Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), who fought against slavery and for the female vote in the country.

Trump stalled the project

The project has been stalled since Donald Trump took office in 2017. Trump is an outspoken admirer of Andrew Jackson’s. During his term, had a photo of the 7th US president hanging in the Oval Office during his term.

Still in the election campaign, in 2016, Trump had already said that Obama’s plan to replace the effigy of the $ 20 ballot was “purely politically correct” and, in a pejorative way, suggested that Tubman be portrayed on the $ 2 bill, which is barely in circulation anymore.

Jackson is still a controversial figure in the country. He was the owner of enslaved blacks and remembered for his policy of expelling Native American Indians from their lands – and even for promoting ethnic cleansing in the country.

Who was Harriet Tubman?

On the other hand, Harriet Tubman’s achievements are absolutely memorable and heroic. Born enslaved, she served as a spy in the American Civil War and helped to free enslaved blacks from southern states, taking them in hiding to northern states, where there was no slavery. She was also the only woman to lead men in combat during the war.

After the conflict ended, she moved to New York, where she led a campaign for women’s equal rights and the female vote. She died poor, at 90, in Auburn, New York.

Other women in the dollar

If the bill passes, Tubman will be the first black woman on a dollar bill, but not the first woman. Martha Washington, the first lady of the United States, was the pioneer. Between 1860 and 1890, it stamped the silver dollar bill.

The second woman was the Indian Pocahontas, between 1865 and 1869, who also appeared on the $ 20 banknotes. She appears to be baptized and given her Christian name, Rebecca.

In addition to the paper bills, other women were also honored in US dollar coins. Suffragette Susan B. Anthony was the first to appear on the $ 1 coin, between 1979 and 1981, and then in 1999.

Also in the $ 1 coin in 2000, the Indian Sacagawea, who guided Lewis W. Clark to the West Coast, was honored.

Still in North America, in 2018, Canada launched its first ballot with a black woman, civil rights activist Viola Desmond.

In Brazil

In Brazil, only two women were honored on the ballots: Princess Isabel and writer Cecília Meireles.