Harriet Tubman $20 bill. Photo from jetmag.com

By Kaylyn Ahrenstein

As of April 20, 2016 the US Treasury Department announced their plan to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.

This news is incredibly interesting to the public because President Andrew Jackson, who was a slave owner at one time in his life, has been on the $20 bill since 1928. The new plan is to move Andrew Jackson to the back of the bill with Harriet Tubman on the front. This is ironic because Jackson owned slaves while Tubman herself was once a slave. The decision to put Tubman on the bill has caused great controversy within the American public.

Personally, I feel that this decision is the right decision.  This woman made great strides in creating the equality and fairness of our nation.  Some of the long term effects of her work include efforts for equal pay between races as well as genders, same sex marriage, and other progressive movements that dominate our nation today. 

I also believe that Tubman stands for the women because there is not a single female on a single piece of money.  Sadly, there are also no African Americans on the currency either.  All of these new strides that the US is making is all thanks to people like Harriet Tubman who fought for what they believed in and made sure their efforts were worth something. Not only does Tubman represent the struggles of women as well as African Americans of her time, she represents the continuous struggles minorities within our society face today.