In 2019, President Donald Trump’s administration shelved a proposal — endorsed by his predecessor, Barack Obama — to place the image of Maryland-born abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. The portrait of Andrew Jackson, the 7th president, remains.
That decision came during the Republican Trump’s first term. But to William Jarmon, an 82-year-old African American retired elementary school principal who lives in the Eastern Shore county where Tubman was born, the move is part of a “cultural and political war”
The battle continued this week, Jarmon said, with reports that the Navy is considering renaming vessels bearing the names of Tubman, Thurgood Marshall — the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court — and others.
“They’re trying to tear down everything we have gained from the beginning of our history,” Jarmon said in an interview. “They can’t erase it because we’re still here.”
Jarmon, who was a teacher and principal in Prince George’s County, has lived in Cambridge for years and works closely with the Harriet Tubman Organization, which honors her memory.
Born a slave in Dorchester County, Tubman is the most famous “conductor” on the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad that led slaves to freedom. Two museums honor her legacy in the Cambridge area, where a giant mural shows her extending a hand to people walking by.
Marshall was also a Marylander, making the state a battleground in the national debate over some of the nation’s most historic icons. He was born in Baltimore and practiced law in the city.
Jarmon was interviewed after Military.com reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, stripping the ship of the moniker of a slain gay rights activist who served as a sailor during the Korean War.
The change was laid out in an internal memo that officials said defended the action as a move to align with Trump’s and Hegseth’s objectives to “re-establish the warrior culture.”
It marks the latest move by Hegseth and the wider Trump administration to purge programs, policies, books and social media mentions of references to diversity, equity and inclusion. It came during Pride Month — the same timing as the Pentagon’s campaign to force transgender troops out of the U.S. military.
The Pentagon did not comment specifically on a CBS report that the Navy is also considering renaming several not-yet-completed ships: the USNS Thurgood Marshall, the USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the USNS Harriet Tubman. Ginsburg was a Supreme Court justice.
Hegseth is “committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a prepared statement.
The USNS Harvey Milk was named in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who said at the time that the John Lewis-class of oilers would be named after leaders who fought for civil and human rights.
Stripping the names of Tubman and Marshall, for whom Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is named, from the ships would be “wickedly disrespectful,” Rep. Kweisi Mfume, a Baltimore Democrat, said in an interview.
It would be the action of a president “who remains locked in petty personality politics,” said Mfume, a former NAACP president.
“If you erase it, we will find a way to replace it,” he said. “This is the beginning of a fight, not the end. There is no surrender on this.”
Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor, posted on X: “I’ll say it again: Loving your country does not mean lying about its history. We should embrace the stories of Americans like Harvey Milk and Harriet Tubman who have helped make this country so powerful and unique. Not diminish them.”
On March 27, Trump issued an executive order called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” that criticized a movement that he said “seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”
Rep. Andy Harris, a Republican whose Harford County and Eastern Shore district includes the Tubman museums, said he was reserving comment on the Tubman-named ship because the Defense Department had not made a final decision.
“Normally for combatant vessels, I support them being named after a president, vice-president, or prominent war hero,” Harris said in a statement. “Because this is a noncombatant vessel —typically named after a civil rights leader — we will provide comment if and when the Department of Defense seriously considers this.”
Maryland elected officials have previously split along party lines over honoring significant figures in the state’s history.
In 2020, U.S. House Democrats from Maryland and other states pushed to remove a bust at the U.S. Capitol of Roger Brooke Taney and replace it with a bust of Marshall.
Taney was a Maryland-born former U.S. Supreme Court chief justice best known for writing the Dred Scott decision, which held that Black Americans were not citizens. He swore in President Abraham Lincoln and was chief justice for 28 years.
Harris supported a compromise of sorts: display busts of both men.
“I do not support denying history by removing Chief Justice Taney’s bust, but instead using its presence as a teaching moment by adding Justice Marshall’s bust, along with a plaque about how flawed the Dred Scott decision was ultimately found to be — the proof being the appointment of Thurgood Marshall,” Harris said at the time.
The Taney bust was removed in 2023. The White House declined to answer questions earlier this month about whether it might seek to restore Taney’s name.
The Associated Press contributed to this article. Have a news tip? Contact Jeff Barker at jebarker@baltsun.com.
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