Abolitionist Harriet Tubman Wins Popular Vote to Be Face of $20 Bill

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By Beth Dalbey and Deb Belt

Maryland native and famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman – who helped guide slaves to freedom in the 1800s – has been chosen by a group campaigning to have a woman as the new face of the $20 bill.

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, MD, 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.

SEE ALSO: 4 Finalists Named in Group’s Campaign to Put Woman on $20 Bill

They were selected from 15 semi-finalists in grassroots voting sponsored by the group trying to convince the U.S. Treasury Department to replace the face of Andrew Jackson, the seventh U.S. president, on the $20 bill.

In preliminary rounds of voting, Roosevelt was the leader. But in the final tally among the four women, Tubman received 118,328 votes, while Roosevelt was second with 111,227 ballots. Parks came in third with 67,173 votes, and Mankiller garnered 58,703 votes.

The $20 bill was selected because 2020 is the 100th anniversary of passage of the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote.

“There are so few reminders in our everyday lives of great women who’ve contributed to the shaping of our nation,” said Susan Ades Stone, executive director of Women on 20s. “It’s time to correct that and putting a woman on a $20 is like having a little pocket monument.”

The group’s slogan is “A Woman’s Place is On the Money.”

Legislation to put a woman’s image on the $20 bill have been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the group says.

»Screenshot from Women on 20s website.