On April 20, 2016, Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, announced the redesign of the $5, $10, and $20 notes. The new U.S. dollar bills will include the faces of historical figures who challenged the state of affairs during their time to include the rights of others. In particular, women, who helped shaped history, will be honored by gracing on all three notes.

The New $20

The new twenty dollar bill will feature Harriet Tubman on the front and reduced images of The White House and President Andrew Jackson on the back. This is a historical moment as the $20 bill is the only bill that will get a new front image. For Harriet Tubman, a woman and former slave, to replace President Jackson, a former slave owner, is unprecedented.

Tubman is well-known for her role as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She is credited with freeing over 300 slaves. She also helped the Union Army in the Civil War by scouting and spying. Tubman was outspoken in her quest for freedom for all people and was a supporter of women suffrage.

Besides his presidency and slave ownership, President Jackson was a founder of Memphis, Tennessee. This, known as the Jackson Purchase, is controversial because he took the land from Native Americans tribes.

The New $10

The new ten dollar bill will keep a familiar face, Alexander Hamilton, on the front while getting a new back. Hamilton, the first Secretary of Treasury, is one of the Nation’s Founding Fathers, founder of the New York Post, The Federalist Party and established a banking system in the United States. Hamilton, unlike other images depicted on United States currency, was never President.

The back will feature images of the Treasury building and from the Women’s Suffrage Parade of 1913. Thousands of women marched in Washington DC to demand a Constitutional Amendment granting women the right to vote.

Among the images will be:

Lucretia Mott, a Quaker from Massachusetts who helped begin the fight for women’s rights;

Sojourner Truth, a freed slave from New York, known for a speech at the 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron, OH;

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a New York born abolitionist who helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848;

Susan B. Anthony, a Quaker and teacher from Massachusetts, who fought vigorously for women’s right to vote;

Alice Paul, a New Jersey native who studied the British suffrage movement while in England and brought back new ways for women to fight for the right to vote in the United States.

The New $5

The new five dollar bill will feature images of Marian Anderson, Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. on the back, while the front will keep the current image of President Lincoln. The back will show images from the historic events that occurred at the Lincoln Memorial. Events such as Marian Anderson, a famous African-American opera singer, performing at Lincoln Memorial in 1939. This performance, with the help of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was groundbreaking since the United States was still segregated at the time. The Lincoln Memorial was the backdrop for the historic “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in
1963. This was the most important speech in the Civil Rights movement.

President Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was no stranger to the civil rights movement. His famous Gettysburg Address, while a short speech, is one of the most quoted in history. He asserted..”that all men are created equal.” after a Union victory in the Civil War at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Video credit RobertHJacksonCenter | Youtube