Abolitionist Harriet Tubman will appear on the front of the U.S.$20 bill, replacing former President Andrew Jackson and becomingthe first woman and first minority featured on U.S. paper currencyin modern times, the Treasury Department said, in a design overhaulthat will leave Alexander Hamilton on the $10 note.

The move is the latest chapter in a 10-month controversy thaterupted after Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew tried to addressgender imbalance on U.S. currency notes. He opened up the selectionprocess to the public just as the current face on the $10 bill wasenjoying a resurgence in notoriety, and outrage ensued.

“It's a decision that reflects a good deal of listening,” Lewtold reporters in Washington on Wednesday. “Harriet Tubman struck achord in all parts of the country.”

The announcement is Lew's way of threading the needle betweenwomen's groups who have been advocating for gender diversity onU.S. currency and fans of Hamilton, including Lin-Manuel Miranda,the playwright and star of the hit Broadway musical about thenation's first Treasury secretary. Miranda lobbied Lew to keepHamilton on the $10 note when he visited Washington last month.

To appease those who have been looking forward to a woman on the$10 bill, the flip side of the Hamilton note will includesuffragists Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony,Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Paul, according to theTreasury.

Jackson's portrait will be relegated to back of the $20 bill,along with the image of the White House.

The back of the $5 will be amended from a picture of the LincolnMemorial to show three people—singer Marian Anderson, civil-rightsleader Martin Luther King Jr., and former First Lady EleanorRoosevelt—who made historical contributions to the memorialsite.

“With this decision, our currency will now tell more of ourstory and reflect the contributions of women as well as men,” Lewsaid.

Tubman escaped slavery and became a leading figure in themovement to abolish the practice before the Civil War. She ledhundreds to freedom along the Underground Railroad to the North,where slavery was banned. During the Civil War, she served as a spyfor the Union Army.

It may take several years for the new bills to reachcirculation, and the changes aren't guaranteed: A future presidentcould roll back the Treasury's promises.

In June, Lew announced the government's plan to feature a womanon the $10 bill, marking the first time in more than a century fora woman to grace the nation's paper currency. But the search turnedto debate after former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and othersobjected to the removal of Hamilton from the $10 note.

The popularity of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” provoked awave of interest in the man who played a leading role in creatingthe U.S. financial system and helped the country repay the debt itamassed during the Revolutionary War.

Suggestions by Lew that a woman might not feature on the frontof the new bill triggered a backlash among women's rightsactivists. Lew suggested in an interview March 30 with Charlie Rosethat the government might leave Hamilton's portrait on the front,saying the former Treasury secretary is one of his heroes.

Promises Made on U.S. Currency

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” Lisa Maatz, AmericanAssociation of University Women's vice president of governmentrelations, said last week, before the new bill was introduced. “Apromise was made and it should be fulfilled. I don't know anyparticular reason why they would back away from it.”

A group of women including feminist icons Gloria Steinem andMarlo Thomas and soccer star Abby Wambach sent a letter to Lew onWednesday before his announcement urging him to put a woman on thefront of the $10 bill. They started a Twitter hashtag #NotGoingBackto urge him to keep what they said was a promise to replaceHamilton with a woman.

“As a country, it is about time we put our money where our mouthis in the fight to support women,” they wrote.

The politics of swapping out Jackson might be easier. He hadbeen a slave owner and is not enjoying a renaissance like Hamilton.Jackson was put under the lens last year in a book by NationalPublic Radio journalist Steve Inskeep, who examined Jackson's rolein forcing Native Americans from their homelands.

Women on 20s, the group that has led the charge to feature awoman on U.S. currency, sent a letter to Lew and U.S. TreasurerRosie Rios last week asking that they fulfill the promise to put awoman on the $10 bill.

In their letter to Lew, Women on 20s wrote that “relegatingwomen to the back of the bill is akin to sending them to the backof the bus.” Analogies to Rosa Parks, a black woman whose refusalto sit in the rear of a city bus made her a symbol of and leadingcivil-rights activist, “are inevitable,” the group said.

Hamilton Fans

Along with women's rights activists, Hillary Clinton, who'scampaigning to become the first female U.S. president, has weighedinto the debate. Miranda performed for President Barack Obama andhis guests last month in an intimate East Room performance.

Bernanke wrote last year that it would be a shame to demoteHamilton, “the best and most foresighted economic policy maker inU.S. history.”

The new bill was set to be unveiled in 2020, coinciding with the100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment extendingvoting rights to women. The $10 note already was due for a makeoverto incorporate security and technological upgrades, a five-yearprocess.

While there have been Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea dollarcoins in limited runs, the last time women were pictured on U.S.paper currency was in the 1800s—Martha Washington on a $1certificate and Pocahontas in a group engraving on somecurrency.

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