The Treasury Department made an announcement the week of June 15 that a woman was going to be featured on the $10 bill. Readers may recall that I blogged about the campaign launched by Womenon20s to get a woman on the $20 bill for the centennial of women's right to vote in 2020. During that campaign, fifteen women candidates were winnowed to a short list of four - and the winner - with over 600,000 votes cast - was Harriet Tubman. Match the four finalists (all of whom have been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame) with her accomplishment.
____ 1. The first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, she worked to better the lives of her people.
____ 2. Arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man in 1955, she is called the "mother of civil rights."
____ 3. A First Lady who redefined the role and was recognized as an outstanding humanitarian.
____ 4. An escaped slave, she made many trips back to the South and is estimated to have rescued 300 people from bondage.
A. Harriet Tubman
B. Eleanor Roosevelt
C. Rosa Parks
D. Wilma Mankiller
An escaped slave, Harriet Tubman made an estimated 19 trips to the South to rescue an estimated 300 people from bondage. Nicknamed "Moses" (for leading her people out of slavery), Tubman was active in the Underground Railroad - helping former slaves escape to Canada where they would be safe. During the Civil War, she served as a spy and scout and also became the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war. In her later life, Tubman settled in Auburn, New York and a home for the aged was built on her land.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt redefined that role during the presidency of her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt. She held press conferences, expounded her political views, wrote newspaper columns, and after his death served as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly where she focused her attention on humanitarian causes including women's issues and human rights. She considered the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the greatest achievement of her life. President Truman referred to her as "First Lady of the World." Roosevelt also chaired the Commission on the Status of Women.
In 1955, Rosa Parks changed the course of U.S. history when she refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white man. Arrested for her actions, Parks became known as the "mother of civil rights". A bus boycott started that lasted for over a year and led to the desegregation of the city buses under order of the U.S. Supreme Court which found the Jim Crow laws unconstitutional. Her actions led to significant hardships for Parks and her husband. They relocated to Detroit, Michigan to find employment. A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Parks was named one of the most influential people of the 20th Century by Time magazine.
The first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller worked to improve the education and health care systems and government of her people. Elected as chief in 1985 after years of service to the Cherokee Nation, Mankiller served for ten years until ill health forced her to step down. The recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Mankiller said "Prior to my election, young Cherokee girls would never have thought that they might grow up and become chief."
Learn about more she-roes and celebrate amazing women. All of these amazing women through history are profiled in the book Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America. We look forward with great anticipation to a woman on the money!
(answers: 1-D, 2-C, 3-B, 4-A)