“An opera singer credited with helping launch the civil rights movement and improving race relations in America will be one of the first historic women to appear on U.S. paper money in more than a century, and among the first black people ever to appear on U.S. federal currency,” writes Max Kutner in Thursday’s (4/21) Newsweek. “Marian Anderson, who died in 1993 at age 96, is perhaps best known for her performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, which on Wednesday the U.S. Department of the Treasury said it plans to depict on the reverse side of the redesigned $5 bill…. In 1955, Anderson went on to become the first black person to perform [in a principal role] at New York’s Metropolitan Opera …. The just-announced redesign of the $5 will also depict Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 ‘I Have A Dream’ speech at the Lincoln Memorial… Anderson was present that day too—King … invited her to march with him and perform…. In addition to Anderson, the Treasury Department said it would depict Harriet Tubman on the redesigned $20 bill and suffragists on the redesigned $10.” The suffragists are Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Paul.
Posted April 22, 2016
