WASHINGTON–After much debate, Alexander Hamilton is back in on U.S. currency, while Andrew Jackson is getting moved out in favor of the first woman in a century to appear on a U.S. bill: abolitionist Harriett Tubman.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has announced Tubman will replace Jackson on the front of the $20 bill (with the former president being moved to the back). Alexander Hamilton was to be replaced on the $10 bill by a woman, but pushback from advocates who wanted the more widely circulated $20 bill used instead—plus suspicion that the popularity of the play Hamilton on Broadway helped boost his cause—led Treasury to make the change.
Hamilton was the first U.S. Treasury secretary.
Tubman is well regarded for her courage as an escaped slave in helping to ferry other slaves to freedom as part of the Underground Railroad. She was also a Union spy during the civil war.
Lew said he has not yet set a date for redesigning and introducing the new $20 note but that the images for a suite of new bills—the backs of the $10 and $5 notes also will be redesigned—would be unveiled by 2020, the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
Lew also said public response drove the decision. “I did this the old-fashioned way: We said we were going to listen to people, and we actually listened to people.” He added he was astonished at the level of public response.