Harriet Tubman is bumping Andrew Jackson off the front of the $20 bill. The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday the currency will feature the African-American abolitionist and humanitarian, and Jackson will move to the back of the bill.
“We’re at a time where Hillary Clinton is running for president and I mean, why not? – about time,” San Jose’s Bena Hernandez said.
In 2020 – one hundred years after women won the right to vote –Tubman will replace Jackson on the face of the $20 bill.
“That’s nice not just to have another white man on the dollar bills,” San Jose State University senior Marissa Trigos said.
Facebook’s chief operating officer says the decision is empowering for women.
“You can’t be what you can’t see,” Sheryl Sandberg said. “So having women depicted – and it’s not just on the 20, they’re also adding women to the reverse of other bills – is a great step forward.”
The Silicon Valley chapter of the NAACP says the move is also historic for minorities.
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“The first Black person on a currency is great for us as a country and in particular for us as Black Americans,” Rev. Jethroe Moore said.
The NAACP president said though Jackson was known for being a good president, he also had some marks that included owning slaves.
The South Peninsula Area Republican Coalition (SPARC) says the decision to remove Jackson is a tough one.
“He was a revolutionary hero,” Peter Verbica said of the democrat.
SPARC’s president wishes more modern republican choices would have been considered along with Tubman such as Rosario Marin and Condoleeza Rice.
Moore says featuring Tubman is the “perfect place to start. I think we need to look for more ways to honor women in America.”
