Ten years ago this April, President Barack Obama announced that abolitionist Harriet Tubman would replace President Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20 bill. She would be the first woman on U.S. paper currency in more than 100 years, and the first African American woman ever to hold such an honor.  

Today, however, Jackson’s portrait remains on the bill — and there has been little visible progress in replacing him. 

“I certainly don't think it's a priority under this administration,” said Lisa Page, a professor at George Washington University’s Africana Studies program. 

“It hasn't been a priority for any of our male presidents,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., added.

Tubman, a former slave, helped ferry an estimated 70 individuals out of slavery to freedom on the Underground Railroad, at great personal risk. She also organized a spy ring during the Civil War to assist the Union Army.

Shaheen introduced legislation in 2015 to put Tubman on the $20 bill after a grassroots movement online caught her interest. 

“People started talking about putting a woman on the $20 bill, and who should it be? And overwhelmingly, people in the country said it should be Harriet Tubman,” she recalled.

A year later, Obama and his treasury secretary, Jack Lew, announced a plan to put Tubman on the front of the $20 bill and move Jackson to the back. Lew said the change would occur in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

During his first campaign for president, Donald Trump praised Tubman but called the move to put her on the $20 bill “pure political correctness.” He suggested she could be depicted on another denomination, perhaps the $2 bill.

After Trump took office a year later, his Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told Congress the change would not happen until 2028, to ensure the new bill would contain new technology to thwart counterfeiting. But days after Joe Biden entered the White House in 2021, his press secretary, Jen Psaki, made clear that putting Tubman on the 20-spot was a priority again.

“The Treasury Department is taking steps to resume efforts to put Harriet Tubman on the front of the new $20 notes,” she said.

The timetable for introducing the new bill did not change, however. A source familiar with Treasury operations in the Biden administration told Spectrum News that the department set 2030 for the redesign to incorporate those anti-counterfeiting measures.

Asked if Biden should have done more to get it done before Trump returned to office, Shaheen told Spectrum News, “Everyone should have done more.”

“Even President Trump has talked about how worthy a candidate [she is] for being on our currency would be, and yet it's not a priority,” said Shaheen. “It was not a priority for Barack Obama, even though he announced and started moving it forward. Joe Biden said, ‘I will get this done by the end of my term,’ didn't get done. And now President Trump seems to be more interested in putting himself on a gold coin and putting a signature on our currency than on making sure that women are represented.”

But this new uncertainty comes amid a broad effort by the Trump administration to downplay or eliminate references to slavery in museums and national parks, following the president’s executive order last year to delete “divisive narratives” involving race from federal institutions. 

Page, a George Washington University professor, said “there is a culture of erasure” happening under the Trump administration, citing the removal of plaques by the National Park Service in Philadelphia back in January. Page said she hopes that is not the case here.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing said it takes a decade to research, test, and finalize the redesign of a banknote. A bureau spokesperson told Spectrum News that the $20 bill is still on track for a 2030 release, but she declined to respond to our questions about whether adding Tubman’s portrait remains part of the redesign, referring Spectrum News to the Department of Treasury, which did not return requests for comment.

The White House also did not respond to multiple inquiries by Spectrum News about whether the president still considers putting Tubman on the $20 bill “political correctness,” or if he is considering putting her on any other denomination.

Shaheen said she plans to continue fighting to get Tubman’s portrait on the bill.

“It is a travesty that 250 years into America — and we are celebrating that amazing anniversary this year — that we still are not recognizing the critical role that women have played in this country,” she said.

“This would be a very positive accomplishment for the administration. There are four administrations now that have worked on this for him to be able to accomplish this would be a real achievement.”