Who Is the Black Man on the Two Dollar Bill?
There are no black men featured on the $2 bill. According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, the man on the front of the U.S. $2 bill is founding father and U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. On the back is John Trumbull’s painting, “The Signing of the Declaration of Independence.”
The first $2 bills were issued in 1862, and had a picture Alexander Hamilton, founding father and the first secretary of the Treasury, the U.S. Department of the Treasury explains. In 1869, Thomas Jefferson replaced Hamilton on the $2 notes.
The use of “The Signing of the Declaration of Independence” began in 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States. Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, so the image celebrates one of his greatest accomplishments.
Neither Thomas Jefferson nor any of the men pictured in “The Signing of the Declaration of Independence” is black.
