Senate Concurrent Resolution 537

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY TO PLACE A WOMAN'S FACE ON OUR PAPER CURRENCY IN HONOR OF THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT IN 2020.

WHEREAS, it is time to put a woman's face on our paper currency; and

WHEREAS, the only woman who has ever shown up on American paper currency, not counting Lady Liberty, is Martha Washington, who was on an 1886 silver certificate. She was an excellent First Lady, but her exceptional fame is tied to the ancient idea that the greatest women were simply the ones married to the greatest men; and

WHEREAS, a website called "Women On 20s" has posted biographies of 15 notable women in American history and invites visitors to vote for a female face to replace Andrew Jackson's image. The goal is to get the replacement in place by the anniversary of Women's Suffrage in 2020; and

WHEREAS, the United States Treasury has not changed the faces on the bills since 1929, when Andrew Jackson replaced Grover Cleveland on the $20 bill; and

WHEREAS, the nominees for replacements could be chosen from a list of women by jurists who are asked to consider both achievement and obstacles overcome, including political warriors like Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; and

WHEREAS, the mission of "Women On 20s" is to generate an overwhelming people's mandate for a new $20 bill to be issued in time for the 100th Anniversary in 2020 of the Constitutional Amendment giving women the right to vote; and

WHEREAS, "Women have always been an equal part of the past. They just haven't been part of history":

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby urge the United States Department of the Treasury to place a woman's face on our paper currency in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Women's Suffrage Constitutional Amendment in 2020.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be transmitted by the Secretary of State to the President of the United States, the Secretary of the United States Treasury Department, the members of Mississippi's congressional delegation, forwarded to the Mississippi Commission on the Status of Women, and made available to the Capitol Press Corps.