NEW: US currency to feature an African-American for the first time

Anti-slavery crusader Harriet Tubman will become the first African-American on the face of US paper currency, and the first woman in more than a century, when she replaces former president Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

The US Treasury Department said on Wednesday that Tubman, who was born into slavery in the early 1820s and went on to help hundreds of slaves escape, would take the center spot on the bill, while Jackson, a slave owner, would move to the back.

Introduced alongside a slew of changes to the $5 and $10 notes as well, the redesign gives the Treasury “a chance to open the aperture to reflect more of America’s history,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said.

A new $10 bill will add images of five female leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, including Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to the back, while keeping founding father Alexander Hamilton on the front.



READ MORE


Follow us on Facebook:
PEFM 87.6

Follow us on Twitter:
@PEFMnews

Listen to us on streaming internet radio at: Tunein and from our website at:  PEFM



International Correspondent Scott Congdon can be reached at:
Mail: scottcpefm@gmail.com

*Note: Views expressed in the commentaries on this website are those of individual authors and not necessarily those of PEFM 87.6 or our presenters or correspondents.  Quotes are obviously the opinion of the source. A quote is just a quote and these are offered without comment. Use of a news story or commentary is not an endorsement of the source website.