When dollar bills become history books

Ernestine Wyatt sure looks relieved. The 66-year-old is certain: "Harriet Tubman being on a 20-dollar bill — that was something that was a done deal," she told DW.

The great-great-great-grandniece of Harriet Tubman hasn't tired of pointing out the importance of the Black civil rights campaigner, nor of fighting for her recognition.

Slaveholders on dollar bills  

Tubman is a legend in the United States, but in Europe the freedom fighter who was born as a slave in 1822 is hardly known. In the middle of the 19th century, Tubman was a driving force behind the Underground Railroad, a network of helpers organizing secret hideouts and exchanging encrypted news. It assisted slaves on the run to make it to safer states.

Now her portrait is to be perpetuated on a new $20 bill in line with a decision by President Joe Biden. So far, you mainly see the portraits of white presidents on US paper currency or the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. While the latter represent the nation's economic upswing, they also stand for slavery. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant and more — 12 out of 18 presidents between 1789 and 1877 were slaveholders.

Patriot and abolitionist

"What better person to have on them than a former enslaved person that overcame, but not just overcame, but was an American patriot, that fought for the rights of not just herself, but other people, fought for the rights for this to help this country to preserve the Union," said Ernestine Wyatt.

In 2016, the Obama administration wanted to put Tubman on the $20 bill in place of the controversial former US president and slaveholder Andrew Jackson, who's been on the banknote since 1928.

"When we announced that we are going to be putting a woman on our currency, for the first time in over 100 years, I said it's been too long and the time for that changed. And I think the response we got showed how deeply people feel about this," Obama's treasury secretary, Jack Lew, said at the time.

Pure political correctness?

The very thought of it energized the African American community in the US. But Obama's successor government nipped those plans in the bud and halted the campaign that had seen the support of millions of online voters.

US former-President Donald Trump denounced the Tubman project as "pure political correctness," pandering to racist attitudes held by parts of his electorate, civil rights campaigners and some Democrats charged at the time.

Biden, for his part, had already supported the Tubman initiative as vice president under Obama. "It's important that our money reflects the history and diversity of our country and Harriet Tubman's image facing the new $20 note would certainly reflect that," White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said shortly after Biden's inauguration.

Playing the role of a legacy administrator

In a twist of irony, former slaveholder  Jackson will be on the back side of the bill, while Tubman will decorate the front.

According to Wyatt, Tubman achieved so much more than helping liberate slaves. Living in Washington, DC, Wyatt looks after Tubman's legacy and organizes commemorative events and livestreams. She also regularly answers questions about Tubman from historians and museum staff.

Wyatt said she originally thought the African American community just needed Obama as president to advance things, only to later realize it was not enough. She mentioned the disadvantages that African Americans were confronted with in the US health system.

In times marked by the Black Lives Matter movement, justice was key, she said, as well as due respect for each other. "Is it the job of the police to snap out the life of another person? We need to think about that."

Dollar bills as a history book

Historian Frank Noll told DW that the people shown on the bills could be read, in hindsight, like a history book.

So far, only two women have made it onto US dollar bills: the wife of the first president of the US, Martha Washington, and the noted Native American Pocahontas, who was shown kneeling in a reprint of the painting "Baptism of Pocahontas." But neither bill has been printed for more than 100 years.

"The notes reflect the society in which they are created. So you would expect change to occur," Noll said.

Commemorating her 200th birthday?

Tubman liberated captives and, as a nurse, treated wounded soldiers. Shortly before her death in 1913, she received a monthly veterans' pension of $20.

Ernestine Wyatt says that today the United States has a real chance to catch up with a neglected chapter of the nation's history. It's unclear when exactly the new bill will be issued. Many hope it could be as early as next year — 200 years after Tubman's birth.

This article was adapted from German.