Rosa Parks could be first woman on $20 bill
Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks is among the finalists in a campaign to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with a woman's portrait.
The nonprofit group Women On 20s revealed the final candidates this week after 256,000 ballots were cast online from a slate of 15 that included Betty Friedan, Sojourner Truth, Rachel Carson and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Parks is considered the mother of the civil rights movement, sparked by her refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Her act of defiance led to the famous bus boycott in Montgomery.
In 1957, Parks moved to Detroit, where she lived until her death in 2005. Parks worked as a secretary and aide to Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, from 1964 until she retired in 1988.
In addition to Parks, voters chose former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and abolitionist and Underground Railroad "conductor" Harriet Tubman. Organizers added a fourth finalist, Cherokee Nation chief Wilma Mankiller, in response to public feedback, said Susan Ades Stone, executive director of Women On 20s.
"People wanted to have a choice of a Native American because of Andrew Jackson's involvement in the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears," said Stone, referring to the forced relocation of tribes in the late 1830s.
"It turns out that Jackson was a fierce opponent of paper money and a central bank, so he might have been the first one to say, 'Get me off of here.' "
With the final round of voting underway, more than 105,000 people have cast ballots since Monday to help decide whose name will be presented to President Barack Obama for consideration, Stone said.
"At the moment, we're leaving the voting open ended. I'm anticipating that it possibly won't go past this month, but we're still undecided," Stone said. "We want to try to remain flexible, so that we involve as many people as possible."
Redesigning U.S. currency doesn't require an act of Congress or presidential approval. That authority rests with the secretary of the Treasury.
Women On 20s will present its winner in a petition to the White House, asking Obama to direct Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to change the portrait on the $20 bill by 2020, coinciding with the centennial of women's suffrage.
During a speech last summer, Obama indicated support for women on U.S. currency. Obama said he had received a letter from a young girl who included a list of possible female candidates to put on bills or coins, "which I thought was a pretty good idea," he told a crowd in Kansas City, Missouri.
Lew avoided a direct answer when asked by CNN last month when a woman would be pictured on twenties. "We've been looking at a whole range of issues about how to modernize our currency," Lew told the network. "I'm not going to make any announcement today, but we're looking at a lot of interesting things."
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department declined to comment on the campaign Thursday.
The individuals featured on U.S. banknotes haven't changed since 1929. No women and no African-Americans have been pictured. Federal law says those depicted must be deceased.
Today's currency is redesigned mainly to enhance security. Officials typically don't vary the images within a series. The newest $20 note entered into circulation in October 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
The redesign process takes several years, so it's unclear whether the government could meet group's goal of 2020.
A redesign of the current $10 note is set to be released into circulation in 2020; that work began in June 2013.
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WOMEN ON 20s FINALISTS
You can vote for who should be the new face of the U.S. $20 bill at www.womenon20s.org/vote2:
Wilma Mankiller (1945 to 2010)
The first elected female chief of a Native nation in the modern era. She served as principal chief of the Cherokee nation from 1985 to 1995.
Rosa Parks (1913 to 2005)
The "first lady of civil rights" challenged racial segregation by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her subsequent arrest helped start the civil rights movement.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 to 1962)
The wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady, who later served at the United Nations, working on issues related to human rights and women.
Harriet Tubman (circa 1822 to 1913)
After escaping slavery, she returned to the South to lead hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad.