Monday, June 27, 2016
By Heidi Stevens
Chicago Tribune
I’d like to think the defeat of Rep. Steve King’s proposed bill to keep Harriet Tubman off the $20 bill would be the end of that debate, but I doubt it will be.
Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has called the move to put Tubman on the $20 bill “pure political correctness” and suggested to put her on the $2 bill instead, which is no longer printed.
King, an Iowa Republican, said his opposition isn’t to Tubman, per se, but to changing what works just fine, in his mind.
“It’s not about Harriet Tubman, it’s about keeping the picture on the $20,” he said last week, according to Politico. “You know? Why would you want to change that? I am a conservative. I like to keep what we have.”
Which, appropriately enough, is the sort of thing Tubman heard all the time back in her day.
Why change this whole slavery setup? It’s working just fine!
My son recently brought home a biography of Tubman from his school’s book fair. It’s part of a “Who Was” series called “Heroes of Black History” that also includes Jackie Robinson (his favorite baseball player), Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
As we read Tubman’s story, I was embarrassed at how little I knew about her beyond her work on the Underground Railroad, where she led more than 300 slaves to freedom.
I didn’t know she worked as a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War, serving as commander of intelligence operations and overseeing other scouts.
Treatment for dysentery
I didn’t know she worked as a nurse during the war, caring for wounded soldiers and concocting a successful treatment for dysentery from roots and herbs she had watched her mother use as medicine.
I didn’t know she gave speeches alongside women’s rights activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
Books have been written about Tubman that are aimed at adults, obviously, starting as early as 1869 with Sarah Bradford’s “Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman” and its 1886 follow-up, “Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People.”
I’ve added them to the list of books I should have read long ago, and I’ll make a point to learn as much as I can about this woman who changed the world.
Meanwhile, are we honestly witnessing pushback on granting Tubman a bit of recognition for the ways she changed the very fabric of our country? For her lifelong dedication to justice and freedom and equality – the nation’s founding principles, which she fought for even when they were denied to her?
That’s shameful.
“Here’s what’s really happening,” King said in explaining his opposition. “This is liberal activism on the part of the president that’s trying to identify people by categories, and he’s divided us on the lines of groups. This is a divisive proposal on the part of the president, and mine’s unifying. It says just don’t change anything.”
Just don’t change anything is rarely an option that unifies. Just don’t change anything fails to take a clear eyed look at history – let alone the present. Just don’t change anything fails to look beyond your own experience going through the world.
Jackson can lose his spot on the $20 bill and we will still have white males on every single piece of paper currency in the United States, from the $1 bill to the $100 bill. Pushing for a smidgen of diversity isn’t divisive. It’s overdue.
Let’s get on with it.
Heidi Stevens is a Chicago Tribune columnist. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.