There isn’t a woman or person of color on any U.S. currency, in case you haven’t noticed. Women on 20s is working to change that with a petition to reface the $20 bill, currently depicting former President Andrew Jackson.
Women on 20s is a nonprofit dedicated to the push for woman representation on the U.S. bill currency. As of now, the only woman on any U.S. money is Susan B. Anthony whose face is depicted on a dollar coin.
The organization is campaigning that a woman replace Jackson by 2020, on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. One of the reasons the organization suggests Jackson be removed from the currency is because he helped to pass the Indian Removal Act of 1830 (Trail of Tears) that forced Native Americans of the Southeastern United States off of their land and into Oklahoma.
After surveying 100 historians and experts, Women on 20 decided on 15 worthy candidates:Â Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Rachel Carson, Betty Friedan, Patsy Mink, Alice Paul, Frances Perkins, Margaret Sanger and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The general public can visit the Website and vote on their favorite of the selected women.
President Obama addressed matters of the economy last year in Kansas City and brought up the same issue. He shared a story of a young girl who wrote him asking why no women were on U.S. dollar bills. “And then she gave me like a long list of possible women to put on our dollar bills and quarters… which I thought was a pretty good idea,” he said.
There hasn’t been any official efforts to guarantee that a woman secure a United States bill, but the petition is stirring quite the buzz.
Who would you like to see on your $20 bill? Let us know below or #Soundoff and follow @BlackEnterprise on Twitter.