remove Thomas Jefferson from the $2 bill and replace his image with that of the great American poet Phillis Wheatley.

Phillis Wheatley, brought on a slave ship from West Africa to Boston in 1761, became America's first published Black poet, lauded by both Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. But Thomas Jefferson denigrated her writing as inferior to that of whites' (see his "Notes on the State of Virginia"), suggesting that slavery was not unjust because people of color were incapable of intellect. Jefferson was himself a slave owner, yet he is remembered as a champion of abolition and his image is emblazoned on the $2. It is time to give Phillis Wheatley her due and to acknowledge her significance in and contribution to American culture: We the People call to remove Thomas Jefferson's likeness from the next printing of the $2 bill and to replace it, at last, with an image of Phillis Wheatley.