Tubman on the $20
By Maya Dusenbery • @mayadusenbery • 10 years ago

Harriet Tubman is the people’s pick to replace Jackson on the $20 bill

According to a poll by the group Women on 20s, which is pushing to get a woman to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, Harriet Tubman is the public’s top pick. 

Over 600,000 votes were cast in their online survey, and Tubman beat out the other finalists, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Wilma Mankiller. The’ve now officially submitted a petition to the White House, which seems receptive to the idea.

The goal is to get a woman on the $20 by the year 2020, in honor of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage. “Andrew Jackson also so happened to be a ripe candidate for removal,” notes the group’s director, Susan Ades Stone. Indeed. Also, check out how excited these little girls are about Tubman’s win.

ETA: Watch Jay Smooth’s video exploring his second thoughts about honoring Tubman in this way.

 Header image: NBC

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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