Published 12 January 2022
Basseterre
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
Maya Angelou Is First Black Woman to Be Featured on U.S. Quarter
Coins, which have started shipping to banks, are part of the American Women Quarters Program
PHOTO: GERALD HERBERT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Maya Angelou has become the first Black woman to be featured on a U.S. quarter, as part of a new program under the Treasury Department to celebrate women’s contributions to the U.S.
The U.S. Mint said Monday it started shipping the Maya Angelou quarters to banks. The coin is being released as part of the American Women Quarters Program, which will see five quarters featuring other honorees shipped each year from 2022 to 2025.
The individuals featured on the tails side of these quarters will include women who have made a mark in areas like science, civil rights, suffrage and more.
“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,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. “I’m very proud that these coins celebrate the contributions of some of America’s most remarkable women, including Maya Angelou.”
Ms. Angelou, who died in 2014 at 86 years old, was an author, poet and civil-rights activist known for works including “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” which details her earlier life and struggles with sexism, racial identity and rape. She published 36 books over the course of her life, and President Barack Obama awarded her the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
he Mint said the quarter depicting Maya Angelou has images symbolic of how the writer lived and inspired by her poetry.
PHOTO: HANDOUT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
The quarter depicting Ms. Angelou shows her with her arms uplifted in front of a rising sun and a bird in flight, which the Mint said are images symbolic of how the writer lived and inspired by her poetry.
The Mint said the other women who will be featured on quarters this year include Dr. Sally Ride, the first woman astronaut; Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation; Anna May Wong, Hollywood’s first Chinese American film star; and Nina Otero-Warren, a New Mexico suffrage movement leader.
The American Women Quarters Program isn’t the first time the government has tried to promote famous American women on the country’s currency, which is largely emblazoned with depictions of famous white men. The Biden administration early last year said it was resuming efforts to get Harriet Tubman, a slave who became an abolitionist, on the $20 bill.
Write to Allison Prang at [email protected]
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Appeared in the January 12, 2022, print edition as ‘Angelou Is First Black Woman on A Quarter.’
