Harriet Tubman – The new face of the $20 bill

Tubman was a slave who freed herself and then worked to free others, helping them to escape bondage as part of what has become known as the Underground Railroad. That journey — the escape, the flight, the continuing resistance — is an indelible part of American history. It is the other side of the coin — or the bill — in what is otherwise an incomplete story of liberty. It is a reminder that freedom is bigger than any single person, bigger even than national heroes like Washington, Jefferson and Jackson, who fought to gain and preserve freedom while denying it to others. And it is a slow, insufficient but welcome note that the solidly male fraternity represented on U.S. bills represents only half of the nation’s population, half its story and, when it comes down to it, half its value. Read More…