Harriet Tubman Will Replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 Bill

African-American abolitionist and humanitarian Harriet Tubman will replace former President Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill, according to a report.

The U.S. Treasury announced April 20 that Alexander Hamilton will stay on the $10 bill, but Tubman will become the first African American woman to be on a unit of U.S. currency, and she joins a short list of women who have ever been on U.S. currency: Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea on the $1 coin, and Martha Washington and Pocahontas on paper money in the 1800s.

"America’s currency is a statement about who we are as a nation," the U.S. Treasury said in a statement. "Our modern money honors our history and celebrates our values. Building on tremendous feedback from Americans across our country about the theme of democracy, the Treasury Department will create new design concepts for the $20, $10, and $5 dollar notes."

The new $20 will feature Tubman, with the reverse depicting the White House and the former face of the bill, Andrew Jackson.

The new $10 will keep Alexander Hamilton, but the reverse will feature women's suffrage leaders: Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul alongside the Treasury building.

Finally, the $5 will continue to feature Abraham Lincoln, but will also honor civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., Marian Anderson and Eleanor Roosevelt on the reverse.

Hamilton originally was the top candidate for replacement by a female figure. But his status as one of the founders of the nation as well as an instrumental figure in the creation of the Treasury Department itself likely prompted officials to choose Jackson instead, a controversial figure due to his role in moving native Americans from their land.

The idea to put Tubman on the $20 bill may have come from a girl named Sofia from Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to a WHDH Boston report. Sofia had written to President Barack Obama to ask why there were no women on American money, and suggested replacing Andrew Jackson with either Rosa Parks, Abigail Adams or Tubman. Obama replied telling her it was a good idea, and invited her to the Easter Egg Roll.

United States Currency in Circulation by Denomination | Graphiq