$10 Bill for Harriet
Harriet Tubman’s portrait will be in our hands and wallets, if Congressman Chris Van Hollen and the Dorchester County Council get their way. Both have asked federal Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to make the Maryland-born abolitionist the woman promised to be featured on the next new $10 bill.
Tubman “helped free hundreds of slaves through her courageous leadership,” Congressman Van Hollen wrote in a Black History Month letter to Secretary Lew. “She was vocal about women’s suffrage and an early advocate of equal rights. I believe her unwavering quest for universal freedom and equality has earned her national recognition for her role in the history of the United States and urge that her portrait be placed on the new $10 bill.”
Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski has introduced a bill in Tubman’s favor, the Harriet Tubman Currency Tribute Act of 2015, with co-sponsor Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
The first U.S. paper money bearing the likeness of a woman, the new $10 will go into circulation after 2020, the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.