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Congratulating Barbara Ortiz Howard for Leading the Local Women on 20’s Campaign to Place a Woman on the Twenty Dollar Bill.
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WHEREAS, On April 20, 2016 the United States’ Department of Treasury placed freedom fighter Harriet Tubman on the Twenty Dollar Bill; and
WHEREAS, Women on 20’s, an organization founded by Barbara Ortiz Howard working to see that women have representation on paper currency; and
WHEREAS, A woman has never been featured on a piece of U.S. paper currency; and
WHEREAS, Women have only appeared on lower circulated, less popular coins including Susan B. Anthony, whose one dollar coin was minted 800 million times before being taken out of circulation, and the Susan B. Anthony replacement, the Sacagawea one dollar coin which by 2012 saw only 3 million in circulation; and
WHEREAS, Women on 20’s, along with a group of prominent women historians selected 100 women from American history, which were then narrowed down to four through a series of voting processes; and
WHEREAS, On May 12, 2015, Women on 20’s presented a petition to President Obama to replace the portrait of Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman; and
WHEREAS, After more than a year of campaigning to convince the U.S. Treasury to replace the portrait of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with the face of a female American hero, Women On 20’s is celebrating the Treasury Department’s decision to accelerate production of a new $20 bill, revealing its design in time for the 100th Anniversary of women’s suffrage in 2020 and working with the Federal Reserve Board to fast-track its issuance into circulation; and
WHEREAS, The United States’ Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob Lew’s choice of the freed slave and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman to one day feature on the $20 note is an exciting one, especially given that she emerged as the choice of more than half a million voters in the Women on 20’s online poll last Spring; and
WHEREAS, Harriet Tubman, born a slave, fled North to freedom, later making 19 trips back to the South as an Underground Railroad conductor, leading some 300 slaves to freedom. A nurse during the Civil War, she served the Union army as a scout and spy. She was active in the women's suffrage movement after the war; and
WHEREAS, Women on 20’s is responsible for sparking a conversation about the symbols and historical figures that define us as a nation, committing to the goal of honoring women in this most visible fashion; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That Council does hereby congratulate Barbara Ortiz Howard for Leading the Local Women on 20’s Campaign to Place a Woman on the Twenty Dollar Bill.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to Barbara Ortiz Howard, Founder of Women on 20’s, as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.
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