NEW
YORK, United States — Poet
and activist
Maya Angelou has become the first Black woman to appear on the US
quarter, in a new version of the coin unveiled by the US Mint on Monday.
اضافة اعلان
Angelou, author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings,” will also be the first figure commemorated through the American Women
Quarters Program, which was signed into law in January 2021.
The US Mint “has begun shipping the first
coins” with Angelou’s likeness on the American quarter, a 25-cent piece,
according to a press release from the agency.
“It is my honor to present our nation’s first
circulating coins dedicated to celebrating American women and their
contributions to American history,” said Mint Deputy Director Ventris Gibson.
“Each 2022 quarter is designed to reflect the
breadth and depth of accomplishments being celebrated throughout this historic
coin program. Maya Angelou, featured on the reverse of this first coin in the
series, used words to inspire and uplift.”
The program directs the
US Mint to issue
quarters each year between 2022 and 2025 featuring five different female
American trailblazers.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she was
“proud that these coins celebrate the contributions of some of America’s most
remarkable women.”
“Each time we redesign our currency, we have
the chance to say something about our country — what we value, and how we’ve
progressed as a society,” she said in a statement.
For much of the last 90 years the quarter has
depicted the first US president, George Washington, on one side and an eagle on
the other.
In 1999 the US launched a series of quarters
honoring the 50 states, with a state’s design depicted on the coin’s reverse.
The program was expanded to include US territories and national parks.
The new quarters — which have been minted in
Philadelphia and Denver — show Washington on one side and Angelou on the other.
The other figures set to appear on the coin in
2022 are: Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; Wilma Mankiller, first
female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation; Nina Otero-Warren, a suffrage
leader; and Anna May Wong, a Chinese-American film star.
‘Legacy
honored’
Born in
Missouri in 1928, Angelou was an essayist and poet who worked with civil rights
leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Angelou, who delivered the poem at
Bill Clinton’s first presidential inauguration, died in 2014.
Yellen has also signaled support for
recognizing former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman on US currency.
Former president Barack Obama launched an
effort to put Tubman’s face on the $20 bill but it stalled under
Donald Trump’s
administration.
Putting Tubman, a Black woman who escaped
slavery and became a leader of the pre-Civil War abolitionist movement, on the
bill would be an “honor” but designing banknotes takes time, Yellen said in
September.
Many US lawmakers celebrated the release of
the Angelou quarters, including congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.
“Black women have historically done the most for our
country while receiving the least recognition,” the Massachusetts Democrat
tweeted. “Glad to see Maya Angelou, a shero of mine, have her legacy honored.”
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