Harriet Tubman 20 Dollar Bill

Many of the students at 447 probably know about Harriet Tubman. If not, here is some quick information on her. Harriet Tubman was a slave in America until she escaped and used the Underground Railroad (Not an actual railroad) to get to the North and freedom. Afterwards, she made 19 trips back and forth to the South and freed over 300 slaves. However, this article is not about Harriet Tubman's journeys and trips on the Underground Railroad. It’s about Harriet Tubman going on the $20 bill today and how people are feeling about it.

Back in 2014 when President Obama was in office, he got a letter from a 9-year-old girl telling him that he should put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. He was heavily inspired by the letter and put the $20 bill into action. A lot of it was because the person who is on the bill currently, Andrew Jackson, was racist, owned several slaves and he also drove Native Americans out of their land even more and treated them horribly.

If this started in 2014, it’s kind of unreasonable why it’s taken eight years to release a bill. Here's why. President Obama said when he first launched the campaign there would be a Harriet Tubman design concept by 2020. Which there is now; there are a lot of designs on the internet. Why the process really got slowed was because of Donald Trump, whose treasurer said the project would be delayed until 2026. Donald Trump also ended up suggesting that we should put Tubman on the $2 bill instead. The $2 bill isn’t printed anymore. People wouldn’t see Tubman on a regular day basis, probably not even once in a year. 

Before President Biden was in office he committed to speed up the process. In the beginning of Biden's Presidency, he got tons of praise from people who felt strongly about the new bill; however, Biden doesn’t seem to be much better than the situation before. The Harriet Tubman bill will most likely not be released for at least another five or six years because nobody in the Biden Administration has had enough commitment or effort to do it. Several people suggest that the real thing that could make Tubman be on the bill in a year or two is the commitment to doing it. Harriet Tubman’s family is also very angry with the Biden Administration for not speeding up the process. 

 There's been a lot of talking about what’s happening in the world with the bill, but what do the people at the school think about it? 

“How would you feel if you woke up and saw Harriet Tubman on the 20 dollar bill?” Is a question I asked. These are all the answers the Wolf Press got back: 

“I would think it's really great and about time. She really deserved it.” said 7th grader Charlie. 

Another 7th grader said, “She deserved it, I mean, with all she did by helping slaves escape through the Underground Railroad, she really deserved it.”  

Chloe from the 7th grade stated,“ I would be pretty happy I’d say, she really deserved it. She was pretty awesome.” 

All the people the Wolf Press interviewed gave some pretty positive and similar responses.  Let's hope people continue to raise their voices about it.