Maya Angelou, a poet and writer, has been made the first Black woman to be depicted as a quarter. This quarter is the first in a series commemorating pioneering American women, which began shipping Monday, the U.S. Mint announced Monday.
“It is my honor to present our nation’s first circulating coins dedicated to celebrating American women and their contributions to American history,” Ventris C. Gibson, the deputy director of the Mint, said in a statement. “Maya Angelou,” she added, “used words to inspire and uplift.”
Ms. Angelou’s landmark 1969 memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” documented her childhood in the Jim Crow South and was among the first autobiographies by a 20th-century Black woman to reach a wide general readership.
In it, she writes, “there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Ms. Angelou recited a poem at President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration, in 1993, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2011.
Ms. Angelou, who died in 2014 at 86, was “one of the brightest lights of our time — a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman,” Mr. Obama said at the time.
The quarter featuring her likeness — created by Emily Damstra, a designer, and Craig A. Campbell, a medallic artist — depicts Ms. Angelou with her arms uplifted, in front of a bird in flight and rays of sunlight streaking out from behind her. The images were both “inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived,” the Mint said.
Ms. Angelou is featured on the “tails” side of the 25-cent piece; the “heads” side includes a portrait of George Washington.
The coin is the first in the American Women Quarters Program, a four-year effort in which the Mint will issue five quarters a year to honor women in fields including women’s suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science and the arts. This year’s other honorees are Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; Wilma Mankiller, a Native American activist; Nina Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement; and Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood.
The Mint has previously issued coins featuring Black women. One commemorative gold coin depicting Lady Liberty as Black woman was issued in 2017.
Susan B. Anthony, a suffragist, was the first woman to appear on a U.S. coin. Silver dollars featuring her image were first issued in 1979. From 2000 to 2008, a dollar coin featuring Sacagawea (the Shoshone woman who helped Lewis and Clark cross the plains) was produced. The Mint released a quarter featuring Helen Keller in 2003.
According to the Treasury Department: Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, will replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill in paper currency by 2030.
Representative Barbara Lee, the California Democrat who sponsored a bill promoting the new coins’ creation, said in a statement last year that she was proud to have led an effort honoring the “phenomenal” women who were often overlooked in American history.
She added: “If you find yourself holding a Maya Angelou quarter, may you be reminded of her words, ‘be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.’”
Maria CramerContributed reporting
Source: NY Times