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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Harriet Tubman was born Araminta "Minty" Ross in
3the early 1820s in Dorchester County, Maryland; she was
4enslaved at a young age and began working the field by
5harvesting flax at age 13; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Harriet Tubman escaped when she was around 27
7years old; she walked the nearly 90 miles to Philadelphia,
8where she took jobs as a domestic and cook and spent summers
9working in Cape May, New Jersey; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Harriet Tubman returned to Maryland approximately
1113 times to rescue as many as 70 enslaved people through the
12Underground Railroad, which was a network of escape routes and
13safe houses organized by Black and white abolitionists; she
14claimed she never lost a passenger; she gave instructions to
1570 others who found their own way to freedom; and
 
16    WHEREAS, If Harriet Tubman had been caught, she would have
17faced physical punishment and been sold back into slavery in
18the Deep South due to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law; and
 
19    WHEREAS, During the Civil War, Harriet Tubman worked for
20the Union Army as a scout, spy, guerrilla soldier, and nurse;
21this makes her one of the first Black women to serve in the

 

 

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1military; and
 
2    WHEREAS, After the war, Harriet Tubman became involved in
3the campaign for women's suffrage along with Elizabeth Cady
4Stanton and Susan B. Anthony; in 1859, she purchased a home in
5Auburn, New York and established it as a home for the elderly;
6and
 
7    WHEREAS, Harriet Tubman died in 1913 and was buried with
8military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery; and
 
9    WHEREAS, In 2014, President Barack Obama launched the
10effort to get Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill after receiving a
11letter from a girl from Massachusetts saying women should
12appear on currency; and
 
13    WHEREAS, In April of 2016, President Obama announced that
14Harriet Tubman would be replacing President Andrew Jackson on
15the $20 and that Jackson would be moved into a scene of the
16White House on the reverse side; and
 
17    WHEREAS, For years, critics have called for Jackson to be
18removed from the $20 bill because of his legacy of supporting
19the institution of slavery, having owned 95 enslaved people
20months before he became president and bringing 14 of them to
21the White House, and for his role in the forced, violent

 

 

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1transfer of tens of thousands of Native Americans from the
2South on what became known as the Trail of Tears; and
 
3    WHEREAS, The new design was initially scheduled for 2020
4but stalled under President Trump who called the move "pure
5political correctness" and said that Jackson "had a great
6history"; and
 
7    WHEREAS, No women or people of color have ever been
8pictured on a denomination of currency still in circulation;
9therefore, be it
 
10    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
11HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
12we urge the federal government to replace Andrew Jackson with
13Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill; and be it further
 
14    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be sent
15to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the
16Majority Leader and Minority Leader of the United States
17Senate, the Speaker and Minority Leader of the United States
18House of Representatives, and all members of the Illinois
19Congressional delegation.