Tubman voted to be the new face of the $20 bill
Women on 20s organization pushes the White House to make the change
An online poll to put a woman’s face on the $20 bill has concluded, deeming Harriet Tubman the winner.
The goal of the online campaign called Women on 20s is to convince the U.S. Department of the Treasury to replace the face of President Andrew Jackson with that of an accomplished American woman.
That woman, chosen by America, was Tubman.
In her lifetime, Tubman escaped slavery but put herself in danger by returning to lead more than 70 other friends and family members to freedom through the Underground Railroad. Later, she worked to promote women’s suffrage.
Tubman collected 118,328 votes during the final round of voting, with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt trailing not-far-behind with 111,227 votes.
Rosa Parks was third in the count with 64,173 votes. In fourth, Wilma Mankiller, a woman’s rights activist and first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, claimed 58,073 votes.
The Women on 20s campaign has forwarded its video revealing the winner to the White House along with a formally written petition.
The motive behind Women on 20s is to close the gender gap that is proved prominent on paper currency, according to Ms. Barbara Orkiz Howard, founder of the campaign.
“Our motivation is to see women in our everyday lives so we can bridge the gap in our society that is evident in our currency,” Howard said. “By having a pocket monument for women, representing a great woman, available to us in our everyday experience, we could better appreciate women’s roles in society.”
Hundreds of thousands have joined the virtual campaign to bring forth historical change, using the social media hashtag ‘#DearMrPresident.’
There has even been an introduction of legislation into both houses of Congress by House member Luis Gutierrez from Illinois titled “The Woman on the 20 Act.”
The goal is to get Tubman on the $20 bill in 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote.
Howard is proud of how far Women on 20s has come.
“The campaign was a short one, 10 weeks in duration: five weeks of primary voting, five weeks of the final round,” Howard said. “In that time, the momentum was enormous. The thought that we could engage people in reality was really wonderful.
“I’m proud it gained so much support from all corners of the political spectrum. This (campaign) has been so positive that people from all ends of the country — republicans, democrats, etcetra — deemed it as a necessary step in achieving gender equality.”
Although voting is over, Howard and Women On 20s are asking supporters to participate in a virtual march on the White House for a change by using the ‘DearMrPresident’ hashtag.
“Our next step was to present the results to the president and treasury, and they have responded in a positive way, and are looking forward to having a future discussion about how we can explore making this mission a reality. We realize that we’ve got some work ahead of us, but we won’t let that slow us down,” Howard said.
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