Letters: Putting a relevant face on U.S. currency

ISSUE | U.S. CURRENCY

Putting a relevant face on history

I love that African American abolitionist and Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman will be on the front of the $20 bill, but Andrew Jackson should be removed entirely instead of put on the back ("Harriet Tubman's place of honor," Thursday). It's past time that history's rich diversity replaces the status quo: Anglo-Saxon, male faces.

To those who claim that such changes are politically correct, I say the traditional telling of history has always been politically motivated. For meaningful change, we need to overhaul teacher education and school and university curricula to ensure that the truth and breadth of history are not distorted.

Julie K. Mesaros, West Chester

Do we need to wait four more years?

As an African American man, I am thrilled that the Treasury Department is moving to include minorities and women on our U.S. currency: suffragettes, including Lucretia Mott of Philadelphia, Alice Paul of New Jersey, and Sojourner Truth, on the back of the $10 bill; and Eleanor Roosevelt, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Philadelphia-born singer Marian Anderson on the back of the $5 bill.

These additions are long overdue, but we'll have to wait a few years longer. I hope I am blessed to live to 2020 and see these changes.

Wayne E. Williams, Camden, wwilliams@uarts.edu