Harriet Tubman To Replace Andrew Jackson On Front Of $20 Bill
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History is pleased with the decision to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.
"A wonderful decision and a real reason for celebration," said Perri Irmer, president and CEO of the DuSable Museum.
She hopes this will generate more interest in African American history, including things Tubman was active in like the Underground Railroad.
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"A system of secret safehouses and meeting places that successfully helped free hundreds and hundreds of slaves and then she went on to become a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War," Irmer said.
Irmer says she thinks DuSable's founder Margaret Burroughs, who died in 2010, would be extremely proud that an African American woman is being honored this way.
Hundreds of historical women were floated for the redesign efforts by the Treasury Department to honor the contribution of women in the country's history.
Pamela Welcome says she has been reenacting Harriet Tubman for more than 25 years.
"It's long overdue," she said. "I think it's time that people recognize that African Americans have had a very integral part in our history."
Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson, the nation's seventh president and a former slave owner.
"I was surprised it took it took this long for somebody to get him off the currency because he offended just about everybody," said Andrew Jackson reenactor Terry Lynch.
1.5 million people weighed in on the redesign, sending the Treasury suggestions. Jackson who's been the face of the bill since 1929, will be moved to the back of the bill.
