People in the United States would overwhelmingly prefer to see abolitionist activist Harriet Tubman on the their twenty-dollar bill over the portrait of the seventh U.S. President Andrew Jackson, an online poll showed Tuesday.
The 10-week poll was conducted as part of a grassroots campaign to urge Obama to update the 20-dollar note with the image of an iconic woman in U.S. history, saying “a woman's place is on the money.”
The people's choice revealed! Congratulations #HarrietTubman. Join the Virtual March by going here: http://t.co/zjZE1L4iIS #DearMrPresident
— Women On 20s (@WomenOn20s)
May 12, 2015
A woman has never been featured on a U.S. bill, and according to the petition, it's about time one was.
“Our work won’t be done until we’re holding a Harriet $20 bill in our hands in time for the centennial of women’s suffrage in 2020," Susan Ades Stone, executive director of the non-profit group Women on 20s, said in a statement.
The campaign targets the $20 bill to give the boot to Andrew Jackson, the U.S. President that passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 that forced mass relocation of Native Americans to offer resource-rich land to European settlers in southeastern U.S.
Over 188,000 of 600 thousand poll respondents chose escaped slave and Underground Railroad activist Tubman as the winner after two rounds of online voting. Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, civil rights legend Rosa Parks, and first woman Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller came in as runners up.
She is known as the "Moses" who led so many 2 freedom. So much more to her story! http://t.co/zjZE1L4iIS 2 days left! pic.twitter.com/sH48qJGmWv
— Women On 20s (@WomenOn20s)
May 9, 2015
After escaping from slavery, Harriet Tubman took incredible risk to free dozens of other slaves on repeated journeys to the south over the course of more than a decade. During the Civil War, she served the Union Army as a nurse and a spy, fighting for abolition.
Campaign organizers delivered a petition and results of the poll to the White House Tuesday. They are also asking for a “virtual march” on Washington using the hashtag #DearMrPresident to reiterate the message through social media.
#DearMrPresident Women have been making history in our country since its birth. Time to give currency to their worth. http://t.co/krkhBrm2wF
— Chrissy Horansky (@MissMillennial)
May 13, 2015