Site last updated: Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Log In

Reset Password
Butler County's great daily newspaper

Tubman to replace Jackson

A woman holds a sign backing Harriet Tubman for the $20 bill during a rally at the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y. last summer.

WASHINGTON — U.S. paper money is getting a historic makeover.

Harriet Tubman, an African-American abolitionist born into slavery, will be the new face on the $20 bill.

The leader of the Underground Railroad is replacing the portrait of Andrew Jackson, the nation’s seventh president and a slave owner, who is being be pushed to the back of the bill.

And Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary who’s enjoying a revival thanks to a hit Broadway play, will keep his spot on the $10 note after talk of his removal.

The changes are part of a redesign announced Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, with the new $20 marking two historic milestones: Tubman will become the first African-American on U.S. paper money and the first woman to be depicted on currency in 100 years.

Lew also settled a backlash that had erupted after he had announced an initial plan to remove Hamilton from the $10 bill in order to honor a woman. Instead, the Treasury building on the back of the bill will be changed to commemorate a 1913 march that ended on the steps of the building.

The back of the $20, which now shows the White House, will be redesigned to include the White House and Jackson, whose statute stands across the street in Lafayette Park. The $5 bill will also undergo change: The illustration of the Lincoln Memorial on the back will be redesigned to honor “events at the Lincoln Memorial that helped to shape our history and our democracy.”

More in Business

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

* indicates required
TODAY'S PHOTOS