The face of money has furthered racial divisions in America. When will the Trump administration make some positive overture toward Blacks? President Trump could make a lot of Black friends by replacing Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the face of the $20 bill.
America’s seventh President, Andrew Jackson has been featured on the front side of $20 since 1928. Harriet Tubman and President Andrew Jackson lived on opposite sides of the American experience. Tubman, a Black woman, escaped slavery to become a conductor on the Underground Railroad, risking her life to lead slaves to freedom. Jackson was the son of Scot-Irish immigrants and owner of slaves at The Hermitage plantation. He was elected president as a war hero, but became known for policies that led to the deaths of Native Americans.
“Dead presidents” is what some Blacks call America’s currency. Some say putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill is a disgrace to what she fought for as the ultimate “co-opt” of the Black struggle. Tubman didn’t fight against that system of capitalism to be put on that same system’s $20 bill, they argue. Others find it insulting to Tubman’s legacy and ironic the abolitionist icon that fought the oppressive American system economy would want to become a symbol of it.
Jackson’s face on the $20 is a monument to “white supremacy.” The seventh president engineered genocide and should be vilified, not honored. Jackson led to the death of 4,000 Indians when he ordered their “relocation” in “The Trail of Tears.” Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act forced 50,000 Cherokees, Choctaws, Muscogee-Creeks, Chickasaws and Seminoles off their ancestral lands.
Tubman’s contributions were great in the struggle to abolish slavery. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland in 1820; her birth name was Araminta Harriet Ross. As a child, she was “hired out” to do domestic work. While working in her early teens, Tubman defied an overseer’s order to restrain another field hand, and blocked a doorway so the man could escape. When the overseer threw a two-pound iron weight at her, it broke her skull and left her with a lifetime of seizures and narcolepsy.
Tubman fled plantation bondage and arrived in Philadelphia in 1849. A well-organized Underground Railroad had been functioning for 50 years when Tubman joined. She became a “conductor” and went on 19 missions to the South. So determined was she that she threatened to shoot anyone who tried to turn back. Tubman was so successful that the Southern slavers offered a $40,000 bounty for her capture.
Frederick Douglass had enormous respect for Tubman. Another ally was white abolitionist John Brown, who advocated armed struggle to destroy slavery. Tubman helped him recruit supporters. Brown found Tubman’s knowledge of support networks and resources to be important contributions to his 1859 raid at Harpers Ferry.
This is an opportunity for the Trump administration to show leadership toward overcoming racial inequities and understanding of racial/cultural sensibilities. Currently, it’s unclear if Trump plans to reverse the Obama administration’s currency decision. During his campaign, Trump said replacing Jackson with Tubman is “pure political correctness” and that Tubman should be featured on the $2 bill.
Most Blacks say Harriet Tubman deserves to be on the $20 bill more than does Jackson since he became president, Trump has not addressed the issue since taking office, but he did put a portrait of Jackson in the Oval Office.
The policy on the issue will be made by Steven Mnuchin, the current Treasury Secretary. To date, Mnuchin has failed to endorse plans to redesign the $20.
Ms. Harriet’s face on American money won’t change Blacks’ condition in this country. Nevertheless, Black advocates can lobby the Trump Treasury people by calling them at the Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20220 – (202) 622-2000
William Reed is publisher of “Who’s Who in Black Corporate America” and available for projects via Busxchng@his.com.
