A woman, former slave Harriet Tubman, will be the new face of the $20 bill. Fittingly, she will bump Andrew Jackson, who owned slaves, to the back of the bill.
Also in last Thursday’s announcement from Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew was news that other women and minorities will be depicted on the redesigned $5 and $10 bills.
The $5 bill, which will still feature Abraham Lincoln on the front, will now also honor historic events that took place at the Lincoln Memorial. Added to its back will be images of Martin Luther King Jr. and African-American opera singer Marian Anderson, who performed on the steps of the memorial in 1939 after she was denied the use of Constitution Hall because of her race.
The front of the new $10 note will continue to feature Alexander Hamilton, but on the back will be a depiction of leaders of the women’s suffrage movement — Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul — and their 1913 march that ended at the Treasury building.
If you’re interested in learning more about these changes to our currency, go to the Treasury website at modernmoney.treasury.gov.
But already there has been some criticism about the appropriateness of putting Tubman on the $20 bill.
Some say it is unnecessary and smacks of political correctness. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested that Tubman instead be put on the seldom-seen or -used $2 bill. Others argue that Tubman, who escaped to freedom and then led hundreds of others out of bondage, might object to being featured on an instrument of the very American capitalism that kept her and so many enslaved.
Could the same be said for the other women and minorities slated to appear on the new bills?
Ivy Baker Priest, who served as U.S. treasurer under President Dwight Eisenhower, once said that women don’t care about being depicted on money “as long as we can get our hands on it.”
Except our hands haven’t gotten on as much of it as we deserve. Women still earn less than men. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was supposed to ensure that men and women earn the same compensation for the same job. Yet there is still a gender pay gap, and it’s even greater for women of color.
The National Women’s Law Center recently released an analysis concluding that, based on the gender gap, women would be shortchanged $430,480 over the course of a 40-year career. (The figures weren’t adjusted for inflation.) The loss would be $877,480 for African-American women, and more than $1 million for Latinas. You can find a state-by-state look at nwlc.org.
Stay informed on what is happening in Clark County, WA and beyond for only
Many African-Americans are struggling financially. For many of them, the legacy of poverty is rooted in slavery as well as institutionalized racism and inequality in education, employment and pay.
A report by the Working Families Project found that, in 2013, the median net worth of all white households was 13 times higher than that of African-American households. “The wealth gap between whites and blacks is currently at its highest level since 1989,” the group said.
“Blacks also were about three times as likely as whites in 2011 to be living below the poverty line (28 percent vs. 10 percent),” wrote Rich Morin, a senior editor focusing on social and demographic trends at Pew Research Center. “This gap has remained about the same in recent decades.”
Treasury says the final designs for the new $5, $10 and $20 notes will be unveiled in 2020, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.
“This process has been much bigger than one square inch on one bill,” Lew said. “Of course, more work remains to tell the rich and textured history of our country. But with this decision, our currency will now tell more of our story and reflect the contributions of women, as well as men, to our great democracy.”
Although a symbolic move, the currency makeover hopefully will lead to more discussions, research and efforts to close the income and wealth gaps that are financially holding back so many families.
Women and minorities have been victimized by American capitalism and discriminatory policies, but putting them on paper bills isn’t an insult to their legacy. It may not get many folks to acknowledge that much more has to be done to address economic inequality. But recognizing the hard work and sacrifices made to improve the financial lives of the disenfranchised does demonstrate that these icons represent people who matter. Because money matters.
Michelle Singletary welcomes comments and column ideas. Reach her in care of The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20071; or singletarym@washpost.com
