Social Media Responds to News that Harriet Tubman Is Replacing Andrew Jackson on $20 Bill

WNYC News | Apr 20, 2016

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday that the agency will be adding black freedom fighter and abolitionist Harriet Tubman to the $20 bill. She'll replace slave-holding President Andrew Jackson. 

The announcement caps months of public debate after Treasury Secretary Jack Lew suggested early last year that he was considering replacing Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill with a woman. 

Rebecca Carroll, WNYC's producer of special projects on race, said Twitter responded to Wednesday's news within minutes, with joy and even new memes. She said the choice of Tubman is a powerful one, but it's also problematic. 

"It doesn't actually change anything," she said. "We still don't have equal pay. It doesn't change the wealth gap."

In this interview, WNYC's Jami Floyd talks with Carroll about the new bill.

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