FANTASTIC!
Thank you President Biden. We shall be forever grateful.
Much work was done to achieve this goal. What I like most about how this happened was the way not one huge organization did the work, but many people across the country did their own thing; involved their neighbors and friends; brought in small organizations and didn’t need to be cajoled by the heads and marketing people from one group. Self-motivated by the correctness of the cause and what that change could do for all of us – it is exhilarating.
One of our most fun things that we did was to talk to several people we know who manage estate sales. Hunt Estate Sales came through and thought it was a great idea for Harriet Tubman to be on the face of the $20 bill instead of Andrew Jackson and they decided to stamp the $20 bills that came to them via their estate sales with the image of Harriet Tubman wiping out Andrew Jackson. I shall never forget what great fun that was for private industry to work with a worthy cause to bring about a just result. And no money changed hands. Well, almost. The $20 bills so stamped went all over the place for many different reasons – large and small.
We hope you will look for the Hunt Estate Sales and be one of those buying from them. We know them and their values. You will always come out ahead – whether you are someone with an estate you want or need someone to manage so it can be sold in the best possible way or if you are a buyer looking for something beautiful, unique, and to make a part of your estate – because that is who they are.
There was a Tubman stamp one could buy on Etsy.com. That is where we purchased ours with extra ink because we expected to stamp millions. That didn’t happen, but we did our share. However, there were also Harriet Tubman stamps created by others across the country which they sold to others, used it themselves and the story and project reached into corners it could never have hoped to reach otherwise.
There were many petitions. I think we tried two or three. Not much energy behind any of them because I am not sold on this way of achieving results.
And so much more.
We went to a few breakfasts of different organizations and friends. The Harriet Tubman stamp brought a bit of excitement at Mel King’s house before that breakfast group disbanded. We brought out the stamp so people around the table could get their $20 bill stamped with the Tubman image to frame, spend or whatever else they decided to do with that piece of history. I had forgotten the connection that many present had with what was going on in the neighborhood around Harriet Tubman.
Boston is one where the Tubman House was in trouble trying to save the blood, sweat and tears, that many people invested over years, from being destroyed because neighborhoods which were African American were turning white. Those neighborhoods, in Boston and a few other places, are in downtown areas with white professionals moving out of the suburbs into the city trying to save money on gas and wanting to be close to work and recreational possibilities and god-knows what else. When are we going to start thinking more broadly than about our particular needs and wants of the moment.
We were overjoyed when President Biden announced that the Harriet Tubman $20 was back and would be printed soon.
Thank you to everyone who worked with us on this project. Thank you to those who worked with others on this project. May we move on to even more successful events, projects, protests and may you live long and prosper as your work builds and shows what you value in life.
Hope you will keep up with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. – which gave us the backbone to move ahead with this project.
Our latest project is a legal and educational fund for the elderly to take on happenings like the one which tried hard to destroy Robert, our marriage and our home. We hadn’t thought of ourselves as “elderly” before. We do now. Having been around, even though very young when the NAACP LDF was founded, we are going to do what we can to bring about such a group for the elderly. Many changes from the original, but sort of similar. We had no idea this society was so vicious against its elderly citizens. We don’t seem to realize that we are destroying the carriers of the wisdom we need to survive and thrive.
Marceline Donaldson and Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett
