{"id":1899,"date":"2021-01-27T14:39:53","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T03:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=184807"},"modified":"2021-01-27T14:39:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T03:39:53","slug":"joe-biden-harriet-tubman-opinion","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/joe-biden-harriet-tubman-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Was Harriet Tubman? And Why Does She Deserve More Recognition Than A $20 Bill?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_184808\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-184808\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignfull -width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignfull-width size-full wp-image-184808\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/GettyImages-3232998.jpg\" alt=\"Harriet Tubman\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1502\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-184808\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">circa 1865: Harriet Tubman (c 1820 &#8211; 1913). American abolitionist who escaped from slavery in 1849 and became a member of the &#8216;Underground Railroad&#8217;, leading more than three hundred slaves to freedom. During the Civil War she served as a nurse, laundress and spy with the Union forces. (Photo by Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The 46th President of the United States, <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/articles\/joe-biden-speech-inauguration-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joe Biden<\/a>, has been in office just under one week. During his short time in the Oval Office he has rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, World Health Organisation, reversed the Muslim Ban and mandated masks as the Coronavirus vaccine is rolled out across the country. Overnight it was announced that the White House would continue the push for Harriet Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson on the US $20 bill. The plan was first introduced by the Barack Obama administration in 2016, before being shelved by Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Harriet Tubman was a 19th-century abolitionist and political activist who was born into slavery. She was hired for labour from age five according to\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Harriet-Tubman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Britannica<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>before fleeing at 29-years-old. She led her sister and two children to freedom and went on to rescue upwards of 300 enslaved people along the Underground Railroad to Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, Andrew Jackson &#8211; the 7th US President and a slaveowner &#8211; occupies the $20 bill but thanks to movements such as <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/articles\/jonathan-bachman-black-lives-matter-baton-rouge-protest-photo\/\">Black Lives Matter<\/a>, leaders such as he are being condemned for their actions of racism and systematic oppression. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2021\/jan\/25\/harriet-tubman-us-20-dollar-bill\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reporters<\/a> on Monday the treasury was \u201cexploring ways to speed up\u201d the process. \u201cIt\u2019s important that our money reflect the history and diversity of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Twenty-dollar bill going from Andrew Jackson to Harriet Tubman \u2014 one symbol of difference between Trump and Biden.  Proposed new design below: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/e6xaukiSJJ\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/e6xaukiSJJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BeschlossDC\/status\/1353775377328570371?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">January 25, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Following the BLM protests of 2020 and decades of racism within the United States, it feels somewhat of a victory. Finally, Black people are receiving recognition for their dark history. In 2019, biographer Andrea Dunbar Harris told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2019\/nov\/03\/harriet-tubman-she-came-to-slay-erica-armstrong-dunbar-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Guardian<\/em><\/a> she hoped Tubman\u2019s presence on a new $20 bill would \u201cdrive a conversation about the value of black life, period, from slavery to the present. I don\u2019t think we can have her on the bill without us having that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While it certainly is a step in the right direction, the move has been controversial, just as it was in 2016. An opinion piece published on the\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/voices\/biden-harriet-tubman-20-dollar-bill-racism-black-lives-matter-b1793108.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Independent<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>aptly pointed out that in the US the pay gap between caucasian women and white men is 82 cents to the dollar. For women of colour however, that figure drops dramatically to 61 cents. Should we not work towards closing that polarising gap?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_184810\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-184810\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignfull -width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignfull-width size-full wp-image-184810\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/GettyImages-1158639391.jpg\" alt=\"Harriet Tubman Joe Biden\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-184810\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">WASHINGTON, DC &#8211; JUNE 27: Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Katherine Clark (D-MA) (3rd L) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) 5th L) pose for photographs with supporters before a rally with fellow House Democrats to demand that American abolitionist heroine Harriet Tubman&#8217;s image be put on the $20 bill outside the U.S. Treasury Department June 27, 2019 in Washington, DC. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a Congressional committee in June that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing would not be able to meet the 2020 deadline for getting Tubman&#8217;s image on the bill. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Feminista Jones, a mental health social worker and feminist writer for the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/posteverything\/wp\/2015\/05\/14\/keep-harriet-tubman-and-all-women-off-the-20-bill\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Post<\/a> <\/em>highlighted the irony in making Harriet Tubman a symbol of currency. During the height of slavery, people such as Tubman were considered an asset, <em>currency\u00a0<\/em>if you will. She was the leader of a resistance against capitalism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If having Harriet Tubman\u2019s face on the $20 bill was going to improve women\u2019s access to said bill, I\u2019d be all for it. But instead, it only promises to distort Tubman\u2019s legacy and distract from the economic issues that American women continue to face,&#8221; Jones wrote. She added, &#8220;Harriet Tubman did not fight for capitalism, free trade, or competitive markets. She repeatedly put herself in the line of fire to free people who were treated as currency themselves.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Both women serve a justified opinion &#8211; there is much to be achieved, not only in the economy but in all areas of the country. No matter what you believe however, the very suggestion that Joe Biden will replace Andrew Jones with Tubman has sparked critical thinking, critical conversations. And perhaps one day in the future, the conversations and debates of today can impact meaningful change.<\/p>\n<p>We can only hope, for the sake of women like Harriet Tubman.<\/p>\n<p>The activist was represented in Hollywood film,\u00a0<em>Harriet,<\/em> in 2019. Tubman was played by Cynthia Erivo and starred the likes of Janelle Mon\u00e1e and Joe Alwyn as it paid homage to her work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1627,"featured_media":1901,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[260,35],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.5 (Yoast SEO v20.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Joe Biden Pushes For $20 Bill With Harriet Tubman - Grazia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Overnight it was announced that Joe Biden would continue the push for Harriet Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson on the US $20 bill.\u00a0The plan was first introduced by the Barack Obama administration in 2016, before being shelved by Trump.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/joe-biden-harriet-tubman-opinion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Was Harriet Tubman? 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