On Harriet Tubman Day, a new effort to place the abolitionist on the $20 bill launches

A measure to replace President Andrew Jackson with abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill is being taken up again in Congress.

Monday's announcement is the latest push to honor Tubman on the currency and remove Jackson, the country's seventh president and a slaveholder. It follows a decade-long effort of previous attempts, including through legislation that has stalled in Congress. The announcement also coincides with Harriet Tubman Day, a holiday honoring the activist who led enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

The new bill, called the "Harriet Tubman Tribute Act of 2025," calls for the Treasury secretary to include the abolitionist's face on all $20 bills printed after Dec. 31, 2030, according to a draft of the bill obtained by NPR.

The proposed legislation also stipulates that the production of these bills cannot be delayed more than two years unless it is determined that issuing the bills after the designated date "would create an unacceptable risk of counterfeiting or to the safe, secure, and speedy functioning of the United States economy.''

New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat who will introduce the bill, says images on U.S. paper currency reflect America's values and history and tell the country's story.

"An abolitionist and true patriot who sacrificed so much for the betterment of our nation, Harriet Tubman is nothing short of an American icon," Shaheen tells NPR. "Women and girls, especially communities of color, deserve to see themselves represented and celebrated in meaningful ways — and they deserve to know that their contributions are honored and recognized."

Ernestine "Tina" Martin Wyatt, Tubman's great-great-great-grandniece, tells NPR that honoring her aunt on the $20 bill would mean "freedom."

"That's what was on her mind all the time. Freedom, inclusiveness, justice and equality. That's what democracy is," Wyatt says. "How are we going to make a better country without including people, without justice, without equality, without freedom, most of all and freedom?"

Following her North Star to freedom

Ernestine "Tina" Martin Wyatt, Harriet Tubman's great-great-great grandniece in 2019.

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Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1822 as Araminta "Minty" Ross, Tubman — she married John Tubman, a free Black man, in 1844 — escaped to Philadelphia on Sep. 17, 1849.

But her journey to freedom did not stop there. She risked her life to free her family and other enslaved persons repeatedly as a conductor of the Underground Railroad, traveling by night using the North Star as a guide to the South and back to the North.

She was also a nurse and Union spy during the Civil War — becoming the first woman to lead a major military operation when she guided 150 Black Union soldiers in the Combahee Ferry Raid. During the operation in June 1863, more than 700 enslaved persons were rescued.

Known as "Moses," Tubman helped 70 enslaved persons escape to freedom during her time as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. During a women's suffrage convention in 1896, she spoke of her time as conductor, famously saying, "I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."

'Honor what was started'

While Wyatt appreciates the renewed effort, she says she is not confident it will occur under the Trump administration, given its rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. And not only has the endeavor been held up in Congress, it has also faced delays with the White House and Treasury Department.

In April 2016, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced that Tubman's portrait would be on a redesigned $20 note, to be unveiled in 2020. The image of Jackson was slated to be moved to the bill's reverse side — an action that Wyatt says the family objected to because her aunt and the seventh president of the U.S. are "antithesis of each other."

A woman holds a sign supporting Harriet Tubman for the $20 bill during a town hall meeting at the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y., on Aug. 31, 2015.

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"He held slaves. She freed slaves. They're just so opposing," she says.

During the first Trump administration, then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in 2019 that a new design for the $20 bill would not occur until 2028; he reiterated that to reporters the following year.

In January 2021 during the Biden administration, then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a news briefing that the Treasury Department was "taking steps to resume efforts" to place Tubman on the bills.

President Trump, who praised Tubman as one of several American heroes who "represent what is best in America and her citizens" in January, said in 2016 that the change in currency was "pure political correctness." He also said he would rather leave Jackson on the $20 bill and that it would be "more appropriate" for Tubman to be placed on another form of currency such as the $2 bill.

NPR reached out to the White House, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the Treasury Department for comment on Monday but have not received a response.

The new redesign of the $20 is scheduled for issuance in 2030 on a timeline with other bills to address "risk mitigation and counterfeiting concerns," according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Shaheen says she will pursue "all avenues" to ensure Tubman will be recognized on the currency.

"I've advocated for making this move under four different administrations now," she says. "While some officials have been supportive, it hasn't yet been done — which illustrates why it's so important that Congress step up, especially now as this administration attacks efforts to embrace our nation's diverse culture and history."

But Wyatt, Tubman's relative, says that no matter what political party is in control, she doesn't want the issue to be delayed any further and has a message for Congress and the White House: "Honor what was started and give her the recognition that she needs to have."

"You don't have to like us. You don't have to even want to support us or anything like that. But just do the right thing," she said. "You go to other countries … and you'll see other women, White and Black, that are on money already. … Not coins, but paper currency."

NPR's Laurel Wamsley contributed to this report.
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