The U.S. Treasury has announced new plans for American currency. Among the figures to be honored on the new currency is singer Marian Anderson, who will be featured on the five-dollar bill.
Abraham Lincoln will continue to appear on the front of the five-dollar bill; the reverse will "honor events at the Lincoln Memorial that helped to shape our history and our democracy and prominent individuals involved in those events, including Marian Anderson, Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr."
Anderson (1897-1993), an African-American contralto, was one of the most acclaimed singers in American history. Her repertoire ranged widely from opera arias and lieder to spirituals and popular songs. On April 9, 1939, she performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a live audience of 75,000 and millions more who listened via radio.
For more on the new currency, see modernmoney.treasury.gov.
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