Last week, United States Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew made the announcement that Harriet Tubman, an inspiring abolitionist who led hundreds of enslaved people along the Underground Railroad to freedom, will be replacing Andrew Jackson on the twenty-dollar bill. She will be the first African American to be on the face of United States paper currency, and she will be the first woman on US paper currency since the late 19th century.
The five-dollar and ten-dollar bills will also be getting a makeover. Influential women such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Susan B. Anthony will be added to the back of these bills, and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. will be added to the back of the five-dollar bill.
The designs for these new bills will be revealed on the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which established women’s suffrage. The design will be revealed in the year 2020, but they will not go into circulation until several years later.
Photo source: npr.org