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UpdateSlavery fighter Harriet Tubman is first African-American on US banknote, replacing former President Andrew Jackson on $20 bill

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An image provided by the "Women On 20's" organization festuring abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the US twenty dollar bill. Celebrated former US slave Harriet Tubman will replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 banknote, the first time an African-American has been featured on US money, a Treasury official said. Photo: AFP
Reuters

Anti-slavery crusader Harriet Tubman will become the first African-American to be featured on the face of US paper currency when she replaces President Andrew Jackson on the US$20 bill, the US Treasury Department announced on Wednesday.

She will also be the first woman on US paper currency in more than a century.

The redesigned $20 bill will move Jackson to the back of the bill alongside an image of the White House, Treasury officials said.

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A new $10 bill will keep founding father Alexander Hamilton on the front, while adding images of five women, all leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, to the back.

The reverse of a new $5 note will honour events held at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, including former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr., officials said.

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The slew of changes give the Treasury “a chance to open the aperture to reflect more of America’s history,” Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told reporters on a conference call.

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