Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson and a coalition of civil rights leaders on Thursday, May 23 called for the sending of thousands of mock $20 bills with the picture of Black abolitionist icon Harriet Tubman on it to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. The mock-up of the Tubman $20 bill was approved by the Treasury Department in 2016 and scheduled for release in 2020. Trump and Mnuchin have stonewalled the release of the Tubman $20 bill.
“Trump and Mnuchin have shamelessly played the race card by blocking the treasured historic figure, Harriet Tubman, from the Treasury approved $20 bill, “says Hutchinson,” We’ll counter their blatant obstructionism by flooding Treasury Secretary Mnuchin with thousands of replicas of the Tubman $20 bill that was approved by Treasury .”
“It’s ironic that the $20 dollar bill continues to honor a man who was bandied about as a “common man,” when he was anything but.
Here is what historians have said about the 7th POTUS:
‘There is much that one can look at in Jackson’s life when attempting to arrive at conclusions. In particular, his relationship with the law and Constitution offer a significant window into his worldview.
Whether it was illegally declaring martial law in New Orleans, invading Spanish Florida and executing British citizens, removing federal deposits from the Bank of the United States, or questioning the Supreme Court’s authority in Worcester v. Georgia, Jackson acted in a manner that was at times distinctly illegal yet widely hailed by supporters as being in the nation’s best interest.
And before we conclude that this support was partisan banter bestowed by his own Democratic Party, we must remember that historians and legal scholars to this day have wrestled with the larger ideological and constitutional meaning of Jackson’s beliefs and actions.
One thing is certain: Jackson had no qualms about overstepping the law, even the Constitution, when he believed that the very survival of the nation required it.
Moreover, this perspective remains at the heart of debate in a post-9/11 America. The essential question stands—can a leader violate the law in order to ultimately save it and the nation? “
If the United States of America is supposed to stand for justice, morality, and freedom, how can we continue to dishonor a person who risked her life to better the lives of all of us?
Let’s do the right thing: HONOR HARRIET TUBMAN BY PUTTING HER FACE ON THE $20 DOLLAR BILL!,” says Pedro Baez, president of the Phoenix chapter of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable.
Source and Photo credit: Pedro Baez
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