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Coins
celebrating
the
writer
and poet
Maya
Angelou,
left,
and the
astronaut
Sally
Ride
will be
issued
next
year as
part of
the U.S.
Mint’s
American
Women
Quarters
Program.
Credit...United
States
Mint
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Maya
Angelou
and
Sally
Ride
Will Be
Honored
on
Quarters
By
Bryan
Pietsch
nytimes.com
The
coins
are part
of a new
U.S.
Mint
program
that
will
feature
as many
as 20
American
women.
The
writer
and poet
Maya
Angelou
and the
astronaut
Sally
Ride,
the
first
American
woman to
fly in
space,
are the
first
women
who will
appear
on a
series
of
quarters
to be
issued
by the
U.S.
Mint
over the
next
four
years.
Each
woman
will be
honored
on the
reverse,
or
tails,
side of
the
coins,
which
will
enter
circulation
in
January
as part
of the
American
Women
Quarters
Program.
The
heads
side of
the coin
will
feature
a new
design
of
George
Washington.
Dr.
Ride,
who died
at 61 in
2012,
“would
be so
moved by
this
great
honor,”
her
partner,
Tam
O’Shaughnessy,
said in
a
statement,
adding
that
“this
tribute
reflects
Sally’s
legacy
not only
as a
trailblazing
astronaut
but also
as a
champion
of
diversity
and
inclusion
in STEM
fields.”
Billie
Jean
King,
the
trailblazing
tennis
champion,
hailed
the
announcement
as “a
richly
deserved
honor
for
both.”
Representative
Barbara
Lee, the
California
Democrat
who
introduced
legislation
in the
House of
Representatives
directing
the
Treasury
Department
to
create
the
program,
said in
a
statement
that
“for too
long,
many of
the
women
who have
contributed
to our
country’s
history
have
gone
unrecognized,
especially
women of
color.”
Dr.
Ride and
Ms.
Angelou,
who died
at 86 in
2014,
“paved
the way
for many
who came
after
them and
inspired
young
women to
carry on
their
legacy,”
Ms. Lee
said.
Ms.
Angelou’s
landmark
1969
memoir,
“I Know
Why the
Caged
Bird
Sings,”
was
among
the
first
autobiographies
by a
20th-century
Black
woman to
reach a
wide
general
readership.
She
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.
Dr.
Ride —
who
recalled
saying,
“I’m one
of those
people”
upon
seeing a
NASA
newspaper
ad with
the
qualifications
required
for
astronauts
— flew
on the
Space
Shuttle
Challenger
in 1983
and
1984.
She was
on the
roster
for a
third
shuttle
mission
when the
Challenger
exploded
shortly
after
liftoff
on Jan.
28,
1986.
The
shuttle
program
was
suspended,
and she
retired
the next
year.
The
American
Women
Quarters
Program
will
feature
as many
as 20
women
“from a
wide
spectrum
of
fields
including,
but not
limited
to,
suffrage,
civil
rights,
abolition,
government,
humanities,
science,
space,
and the
arts,”
the U.S.
Mint
said in
a
statement,
adding
that the
women
would be
from
“ethnically,
racially,
and
geographically
diverse
backgrounds.”
Senator
Deb
Fischer,
Republican
of
Nebraska,
and
Senator
Catherine
Cortez
Masto,
Democrat
of
Nevada,
who
introduced
the
legislation
in the
Senate
to
create
the
program,
wrote in
an
opinion
piece in
USA
Today
that “as
female
U.S.
senators,
our
story
would
not have
been
possible
without
these
women
who came
before
us.”
“We
look
forward
to being
reminded
of their
legacies
every
time we
see
their
faces on
a new
quarter,”
they
wrote.
The
U.S.
Mint has
asked
the
public
to
submit
suggestions
for
women to
be
honored
on
future
quarters.
Each
design
will
celebrate
“the
accomplishments
and
contributions”
of a
prominent
American
woman.
The law
says
that no
living
person
will be
depicted
in the
coin
designs.
Treasury
Secretary
Janet
Yellen —
the
first
woman to
hold
that
position
— will
select
the
featured
women
after
consulting
with the
Smithsonian
Institution’s
American
Women’s
History
Initiative,
the
National
Women’s
History
Museum
and the
Congressional
Bipartisan
Women’s
Caucus,
the Mint
said.
Ms.
Yellen
will
also
approve
the
final
designs
for the
coins.
The
first
woman to
be
featured
on a
U.S.
coin was
Queen
Isabella
of
Spain,
who was
honored
on a
quarter
released
in 1893
for the
World’s
Columbian
Exposition
in
Chicago.
Susan B.
Anthony
was the
first
woman to
be
featured
on a
circulating
U.S.
coin;
the
silver
dollar
with her
image on
it was
released
in 1979.
(A
dollar
coin
featuring
Sacagawea,
the
Shoshone
woman
who
helped
Lewis
and
Clark
across
the
plains,
was
produced
from
2000 to
2008.)
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