Put Jeanette Rankin on the $20 bill
Put Jeanette Rankin on the $20 bill
Recently, New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen introduced a bill to have a woman replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill by 2020, to coincide with the centenary of women's suffrage.
Notables like Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks are leading the pack to be the first women on our paper currency since Martha Washington in 1896.
My pick is former Montana congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, who served two terms in the US House, 1917-1919, and 1941-1943. Before Congress, Rankin eschewed marriage and family to earn a college degree and work full time as a lobbyist for the National American Women's Suffrage Association.
Their victory in Montana is what allowed her into Congress before Universal Suffrage, making her the only woman to vote for it in Congress. In April, 1917, Rankin was one of 50 members of Congress voting against President Wilson's Declaration of War against Germany in WWI. The majority vote for senseless war was one of the worst decisions in American history.
Her nay vote sealed her defeat in 1918. In 1940, the cause of peace made her run for Congress again. She won and got the chance to vote against our last declared war against Japan. Facing hisses and calls demanding she change her vote to make it unanimous, she said "I can't go to war (as a woman) so I can't send anyone else."
Rankin's story is largely written out of the American Story that glorifies war and papers over our denial of full civil rights to all throughout our history whether based on race, gender or sexual orientation. Putting her on the $20 bill is a fitting way to right that story. It will make me and every peace loving and inclusive American proud every time we spot her awesome, courageous visage.
Walt Zlotow
Glen Ellyn