HR0054 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0054 LRB102 12534 ECR 17872 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Harriet Tubman was born Araminta "Minty" Ross in the early 1820s in Dorchester County, Maryland; she was enslaved at a young age and began working the field by harvesting flax at age 13; and

WHEREAS, Harriet Tubman escaped when she was around 27 years old; she walked the nearly 90 miles to Philadelphia, where she took jobs as a domestic and cook and spent summers working in Cape May, New Jersey; and

WHEREAS, Harriet Tubman returned to Maryland approximately 13 times to rescue as many as 70 enslaved people through the Underground Railroad, which was a network of escape routes and safe houses organized by Black and white abolitionists; she claimed she never lost a passenger; she gave instructions to 70 others who found their own way to freedom; and

WHEREAS, If Harriet Tubman had been caught, she would have faced physical punishment and been sold back into slavery in the Deep South due to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law; and

WHEREAS, During the Civil War, Harriet Tubman worked for the Union Army as a scout, spy, guerrilla soldier, and nurse; this makes her one of the first Black women to serve in the military; and

WHEREAS, After the war, Harriet Tubman became involved in the campaign for women's suffrage along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony; in 1859, she purchased a home in Auburn, New York and established it as a home for the elderly; and

WHEREAS, Harriet Tubman died in 1913 and was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery; and

WHEREAS, In 2014, President Barack Obama launched the effort to get Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill after receiving a letter from a girl from Massachusetts saying women should appear on currency; and

WHEREAS, In April of 2016, President Obama announced that Harriet Tubman would be replacing President Andrew Jackson on the $20 and that Jackson would be moved into a scene of the White House on the reverse side; and

WHEREAS, For years, critics have called for Jackson to be removed from the $20 bill because of his legacy of supporting the institution of slavery, having owned 95 enslaved people months before he became president and bringing 14 of them to the White House, and for his role in the forced, violent transfer of tens of thousands of Native Americans from the South on what became known as the Trail of Tears; and

WHEREAS, The new design was initially scheduled for 2020 but stalled under President Trump who called the move "pure political correctness" and said that Jackson "had a great history"; and

WHEREAS, No women or people of color have ever been pictured on a denomination of currency still in circulation; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the federal government to replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be sent to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Majority Leader and Minority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker and Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, and all members of the Illinois Congressional delegation.