ANNAPOLIS, MD — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Wednesday urged the Trump Administration to put Dorchester County native and abolitionist Harriett Tubman on the $20 bill now instead of waiting a decade. The move to replace President Andrew Jackson on the front of $20 bills with one-time slave Tubman is officially on hold while Donald Trump is in office, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said last month.
Supporters of the change want to replace the image of a president who forced native Cherokees onto the deadly Trail of Tears and traded slaves with that of a woman who helped hundreds gain freedom via the Underground Railroad.
Hogan sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on June 13 urging the administration to reconsider its decision to delay the release of the Tubman $20 bill. The governor cited concerns that, while the release was originally slated for 2020, “citizens across Maryland and the country will instead have to wait nearly a decade for this new bill to reach general circulation.”
“Dorchester County, Maryland is incredibly proud to be a steward of Harriet Tubman’s lasting legacy, but her influence reaches far beyond the borders of our great state,” wrote Gov. Hogan. “I hope that your department will reconsider its decision and instead join our efforts to promptly memorialize Tubman’s life and many achievements.”
Any change in the currency has been postponed until at least 2026, Mnuchin said in late May, and the revamped $20 bill would not likely be in circulation until 2028, the New York Times reports. Rather than have Trump be criticized for canceling the new bill altogether, Mnuchin instead put a hold on the redesign until Trump is out of office, the newspaper reports. The president called the move to feature Tubman “pure political correctness” and said she could be honored on the $2 bill.
Tubman overcame abuse, war, chronic illness, and extreme injustice to make her mark on American history as a suffragette, an abolitionist, and a Civil War veteran, Hogan’s office said in a statement. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitors Center in Church Creek, which Gov. Hogan marked the grand opening of in 2017, receives hundreds of thousands of visitors each year from all 50 states and over 60 countries.
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“She dedicated her life in selfless service to others and to the cause of freedom,” Hogan said. “Her unbelievable acts of heroism, courage, and sacrifice have more than earned her rightful place among our nation’s most pivotal leaders. She deserves this honor.”
Jackson is described as a populist and President Trump keeps a portrait of the leader on prominent display in the Oval Office. Former adviser According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, there aren’t any records from the time when the decision to put Jackson on the $20 bill. His presidency is most remembered for his brutal treatment of Native Americans. Jackson pushed for the Indian Removal Act, which displaced tens of thousands of Cherokees from their native lands in the Southeast to regions west of the Mississippi River. The move killed thousands uprooted from their ancestral homes.
The Obama administration announced plans to put Tubman on the $20 bill, but that was put on hold once Trump took office. Tubman served as a Union scout during the Civil War and championed women’s voting rights.
Consumers are rebelling against the delay, buying up a stamp created by artist Dano Wall that puts Tubman’s image on a $20, reports The Washington Post. Wall said he has sold out of his stamps and plans to create more.
“My goal is to get 5,000 stamps out there,” Wall told the Post. “If there are 5,000 people consistently stamping currency, we could get a significant percent of circulating $20 bills [with the Tubman] stamp, at which point it would be impossible to ignore.”
Mnuchin confirmed the delay at a congressional hearing, where he said the department is focused on boosting anti-counterfeiting security features of the $10 and $50 bills.
“The administration’s decision to drag their feet and delay the redesign of the $20 until 2028 is unacceptable,” Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings said in a statement. “Our currency must reflect the important role women, and especially women of color, have played in our nation’s history.”
Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings co-sponsored a bipartisan bill in 2017 in an effort to place Tubman’s image on the $20 bill.
Cummings said previously that “Harriet Tubman was called the Moses of her people, because after she escaped slavery, she courageously made 19 trips to the South to free more than 300 enslaved African Americans.”
“Her courage, conviction and commitment to equality represent the best of America and it is long past time we recognize her place in history,” the Baltimore Democrat said.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., originally sponsored a bill in 2015, directing the Department of the Treasury to put Tubman on the face of the $10 bill, replacing Alexander Hamilton. But the switch to the $20 occurred after historians and fans of the musical “Hamilton” objected to altering the $10 bill.
Shaheen recently submitted a new bill that would replace Jackson with Tubman on the $20.
Tubman was one of the finalists in a campaign to put the face of a woman on the $20 bill by the group Women On 20s. She was born a slave about 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland, who used the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom in the North in 1849, then helped others gain their freedom. She also actively spied against the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The four finalists to break the paper currency barrier were Tubman; Rosa Parks, Civil Rights activist; human rights advocate and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt; and Cherokee nation chief Wilma Mankiller.