A mock-up image showing Black abolitionist Harriet Tubman's portrait on a US $20 bill. [AFP]
A mock-up image showing Black abolitionist Harriet Tubman's portrait on a US $20 bill. [AFP]

The Trump administration has shelved a plan by its Democratic predecessors to replace the portrait on the $20 bill with that of Black abolitionist Harriet Tubman (1822–1913).

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department would no longer pursue the plan to put Tubman's portrait on the $20 bill, Reuters reported Tuesday.

In an interview with Spectrum News on Monday, Bessent declined to elaborate when asked whether the Treasury would still move forward with the decade-old plan, saying only, "Not at this time."

The current $20 bill features a portrait of former President Andrew Jackson.

The Barack Obama administration announced in April 2016 that it would replace Jackson on the $20 bill with Tubman, describing Jackson as a white supremacist.

The plan drew pushback from some quarters as an attempt to erase history and was halted when Donald Trump's first administration took office. It was revived under Joe Biden, with new $20 bills bearing Tubman's likeness expected to enter circulation from 2030.

Tubman is one of the most prominent figures associated with the Underground Railroad, a 19th-century secret network aimed at freeing enslaved people. She is credited with making repeated journeys between the American South and North to help more than 70 enslaved Black people escape to freedom.


jshan@heraldcorp.com