Harriet Tubman $20 Bills Are Finally Coming, After Trump Trashed The Plan

Rendering: US Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Historic news today for those of us who want to see someone other than slave-owning white guys on American dollar bills. New White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Monday morning that the US Treasury would restart plans to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. The Obama administration announced the former slave turned abolitionist Harriet Tubman would appear on the new $20 bills back in April 2016, but the bill’s revision was cancelled under the Trump administration, because  — well, you know exactly why. 

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announces the Treasury Department is resuming an Obama-era effort to put Harriet Tubman on the new $20 bill:

"It's important that our money reflect the history and diversity of our country."pic.twitter.com/937uIAG7Zc

— The Recount (@therecount) January 25, 2021

“The Treasury Department is taking steps to resume efforts to put Harriet Tubman on the front of the new $20 notes,” Psaki said Monday morning, as seen in the video above. “It’s important that our notes, our money if people don’t know what a note is, reflect the history and diversity of our country. And Harriet Tubman’s image gracing the $20 note, would certainly reflect that. We’re exploring ways to speed up that effort.”

Twenty-dollar bill going from Andrew Jackson to Harriet Tubman — one symbol of difference between Trump and Biden. Proposed new design below: pic.twitter.com/e6xaukiSJJ

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) January 25, 2021

The final design of the bill is still not approved, but the version seen above is a conceptual design from the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, obtained by the New York Times in 2019. The design of the bill is not yet finalized, and the Biden administration has not provided a timeline and when the new $20 Tubman bill will be released.

People other than white men built this county. And Sec Mnuchin agrees, yet he refuses to update our #currency. #HarrietTubman #MarianAnderson & #EleanorRoosevelt are iconic Americans & its past time that our ? reflects that. #RepresentationMatters | https://t.co/nJmhiktHPm pic.twitter.com/hKQSR3Gl8P

— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) May 22, 2019

We were supposed to already have the new $20 bills last year. But wildly unqualified rich Burning Man asshole and Trump Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin delayed the bills until 2028, clearly hoping it would never happen, and citing the obvious bullshit rationale of “counterfeiting issues.” Some people took matters into their own hands and placed a Harriet Tubman stamp on their $20 bills anyway.

The Biden administration is "exploring ways to speed up" release of $20 bills featuring Harriet Tubman after the Trump administration delayed the movehttps://t.co/BIIfpJByi6

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) January 25, 2021

As a quick refresher, Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, historians believe in 1822, but records are not clear. She escaped slavery (twice) in 1849 using the Underground Railroad, on which she became a “conductor” and eventually facilitated the escapes of more than 300 slaves using the same network. “

“I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say,” she told an audience after the Civil War. “I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”

And just because we cannot get enough of this song, here’s Cynthia Erivo’s video for “Stand Up,” which is sung from the perspective of Harriet Tubman, from the 2019 film Harriet.