US civil war hero Tubman to feature on new $20 bill in 2020

LAHORE: The United States government has decided to place a female African-American civil war hero and anti-slavery activist, Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), on the front of the $20 bill that is due to be unveiled in 2020.  Harriet Tubman will be replacing former American President Andrew Jackson, a wealthy slave owner, on the front of the $20 bill.

Jackson will move to the back of the currency note. The "Wall Street Journal" has maintained: "By contrast, Andrew Jackson, who is currently on the $20 bill, was a wealthy slave owner who as the nation’s seventh president resettled large numbers of Native Americans, which resulted in thousands of deaths.

A prominent critic of paper money, warned of its "deep-seated evil" in his farewell address. Jackson will move to the back of the $20 bill.

The $20 note is the third most widely circulated paper bill, and accounted for almost 23 percent of all bills in circulation last year, according to the Federal Reserve. The $1 note accounts for around 30 percent of all bills, and the $100 note around 28 percent. The $10 note represents 5 percent of all bills."

Known for smuggling slaves to safety via the Underground Railroad network, Harriet Tubman would be the first woman to appear on a US banknote for more than a century.  BBC has reported: "Harriett Tubman was born into slavery in the 1820s. After suffering a serious head injury, she escaped and helped to free more than 70 slaves through the "Underground Railroad", a network of anti-slavery activists and safe houses."

Meanwhile, the back of the $10 bill will honour the leaders of the women's suffrage movement — Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul, reported an American news channel CNBC.

A year after "Women on 20s," a nonprofit, began a movement to replace former President Andrew Jackson with a woman on the $ 20 bill note, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew finally announced that the new bills would be in circulation from 2020 onward, in conjunction with the 19th Amendment's 100th anniversary.

The 19th Amendment had helped the American women win their right to vote in 1920. On April 21, the US Treasury Department had tweeted: "The front of the new $20 will bear the portrait of Harriet Tubman, whose life was dedicated to fighting for liberty."

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew had also stated a few days ago that there would be a new $5 bill, which would illustrate historic events that took place at the Lincoln Memorial on the back.

The back of the $5 bill, which depicts Abraham Lincoln on the front, would show prominent leaders from US history including singer Marian Anderson, former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights leader Martin Luther King.