"Twenty Dollars and Change places Harriet Tubman's life and legacy in a long tradition of resistance, illuminating the ongoing struggle to realize a democracy in which her emancipatory vision prevails.
America is in the throes of a historic reckoning with racism, with the battle for control over official narratives at ground zero. Across the country, politicians, city councils, and school boards are engaged in a highly polarized debate about whose accomplishments should be recognized, and whose point of view should be included in the telling of America's history.
In Twenty Dollars and Change, political scientist Clarence Lusane, author of the acclaimed The, writes from a basic premise: Racist historical narratives and pervasive social inequities are inextricably linked-changing one can transform the other. Taking up the debate over the future of the twenty-dollar bill, Lusane uses the question of Harriet Tubman vs. Andrew Jackson as a lens through which to view the current state of our nation's ongoing reckoning with the legacies of slavery and foundational white supremacy. He places the struggle to confront unjust social conditions in direct connection with the push to transform our public symbols, making it plain that any choice of whose life deserves to be remembered and honored is a direct reflection of whose basic rights are deemed worthy of protection, and whose are not.
""Engaging and insightful, Twenty Dollars and Changeilluminates the grassroots effort to have our national currency reflect the diversity of America and all of its citizens-those ordinary and extraordinary people who have stood up and demanded freedom, equality and justice. A must read!""-Kate Clifford Larson,author ofBound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero"
By:
Clarence Lusane
Foreword by:
Kali Holloway
Imprint: City Lights Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 203mm,
Width: 139mm,
ISBN: 9780872868854
ISBN 10: 0872868850
Pages: 432
Publication Date: 01 February 2023
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword by Kali Holloway Preface Introduction I. TWENTY DOLLARS One: Symbolism Matters Two: Harriet Tubman Represents Solidarity, Struggle, and Genuine Democracy Three: Andrew Jackson’s Face Is a Meme for White Supremacy Four: The Movement to Transform the Faces on U.S. Currency Five: The Tubman Twenty—Black Support and Opposition Six: Conservative Hostility to the Tubman Twenty II. AND CHANGE Seven: Fear of a Diverse America Eight: From 1619 to Covid-19, Racism is a Pre-existing Condition Nine: The George Floyd Catalyst Ten: Abolishing Symbols of White Supremacy Eleven: Black Voters Matter Conclusion: Good Trouble and a Harriet Tubman–Inspired Future Acknowledgments Bibliography Endnotes Index About the Author
"Dr. Clarence Lusane , Lusane lives and works in the Washington, DC area. Kali Holloway is a monthly columnist for both The Nation and The Daily Beast. She is the former director of the ""Make it Right Project,"" a national initiative dedicated to taking down Confederate monuments and telling the truth about history. She is lead vocalist for the band ""Easy Lover"" and is currently working on her first book, The Secret Racist History of Everything."
Reviews for $20 and Change: Harriet Tubman, George Floyd, and the Struggle for Radical Democracy: Harriet Tubman vs. Andrew Jackson, and the Future of American Democracy
Twenty Dollars and Change is a future-gazing guide to who we must be to become who we claim to be. -Kali Holloway, columnist for the The Nation and The Daily Beast (from the foreword) In this trailblazing study, Dr. Lusane builds an irrefutable case that justice in representation goes hand in hand with justice in policy. . . . Urgent and inspiring. -Barbara Ortiz Howard, Founder of Women on 20s Twenty Dollars and Change offers powerful analyses of race and U.S. history and our present crucible moment. . . . A must read. -Barbara Ransby, author of Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-First Century As challenges to racial justice, women's rights, and democracy itself intensify, Lusane's sober and historically rooted analysis provides much needed clarity and insight. . . . Twenty Dollars and Change is exactly the book we need at this moment. -Congresswoman Karen Bass Clarence Lusane reminds us that we all can contribute enormously to a more perfect society based on the dignity, diversity, and democracy of the peoples. In that spirit, and with great clarity and integrity, Lusane calls on us to wake up, fight back, and never back down until justice prevails. -Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee), Writer, Editor, Curator, Native & Indigenous Rights Advocate, and Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Lusane teaches us of the starkly contrasting lives of Tubman and Jackson, and captures blow-by-blow the intricacies of the struggles over changing currency before connecting them to broader ones in the moment of Donald Trump and George Floyd. -David Roediger, author of Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White
