Will she? Or won't she?

The question is whether an image of Harriet Tubman, the famed crusader for freedom and spy for the Union Army who routinely risked her life to save others during the Civil War, will appear on the $20 bill by 2020, the year previously planned for the unveiling of the new bill.

The U.S. Department of Treasury might have pressed the pause button on a plan to replace the portrait of President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with an image of Tubman. The change was announced in 2016 under the Obama administration as part of an overhaul of U.S. paper bills and would have marked the first time a woman appeared on paper currency in America in 120 years.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC Thursday that his primary concern is to ensure American money isn’t susceptible to counterfeiters, but was dubious about whether the department would move forward with putting Tubman's face on the bill.

“Ultimately we will be looking at this issue,” Mnuchin said in the CNBC interview. Whether the bill features Tubman, he said, is “not something I’m focused on at the moment.”

Mnuchin added that “the issues of why we change it will be primarily related to what we need to do for security purposes."

The Free Press reached out to the Treasury Department seeking clarification of that statement.

A Treasury spokesperson referred back to Mnuchin's comments on CNBC, and noted that an updated version of the $20 bill isn't scheduled to be in circulation for at least a decade. The $5 and $10 bills will be overhauled first.

Mnuchin certainly has his hands full right now, trying to ensure the federal debt ceiling is raised before the end of September to avoid defaulting on the nation's obligations.

While safeguarding U.S. money from counterfeiting also should be a top priority, Mnuchin's comments suggest that he's ambivalent about the importance of honoring the legacy of an American hero, a woman who was born a slave but fought for freedom nearly every day of her life not only for herself, but for the nation.

Her legacy is certainly less dodgy than Jackson's.

Jackson was Army general who served as a teen in the Revolutionary War and led battles in the War of 1812 before being elected to the presidency. His record, however, is tarnished for the brutal attacks he led on native Americans, forcing their removal from land east of the Mississippi. Thousands of native people died on the journey, known as the Trail of Tears.

Every American paper bill in circulation now pictures a white man — from late presidents to Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton to a chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mnuchin's comments suggest that the federal government doesn't care about whether U.S. currency reflects our melting pot of a nation nor does it care to acknowledge that we are a country of both men and women, who are not only white, but also many shades of brown.

In the world today, money is power. Excluding the faces of women and people of color from our paper money enforces the perception that only white men are privy to that power.

During his campaign, President Donald Trump said he opposed the idea of removing Jackson’s from the $20 and replacing it with Tubman's, calling it an example of “pure political correctness.”

He also said that he admires Jackson. Trump hung a portrait of Jackson on a wall in the Oval Office.

“Well, Andrew Jackson had a great history, and I think it's very rough when you take somebody off the bill,” Trump said last year in an interview with NBC. “I think Harriet Tubman is fantastic, but I would love to leave Andrew Jackson or see if we can maybe come up with another denomination.”

Barbara Ortiz Howard, founder of Women on 20s, the grassroots nonprofit organization that advocated for putting the face of a woman on the $20 bill, and held an online vote for which woman should appear on the bill, was insistent Thursday that the change is still coming.

"We, at Women on 20s, are confident that once Secretary Mnuchin has time to consider this issue, he will come to the same conclusion as the nonpartisan Advanced Counterfeiting Deterrence Steering Committee that changing the face of our currency is indeed in the best interest of the national security of our nation," Howard told the Free Press.

"Security is mostly embodied in the advanced innovations in paper and ink that our money is printed on, not in the faces we choose to honor. Including women on our currency can enhance our standing as a nation by bringing us together instead of tearing us apart."

Howard noted that during the organization's campaign to have a woman's face printed on the $20 bill, widespread support came from both sides of the political aisle.

"Democrats as well as Republicans called for the removal of Jackson and his replacement by a woman," she said. "Harriet Tubman is beloved by all kinds of Americans on all political sides. ... She was a freedom fighter her whole life. She was a suffragist. She pretty much did it all, and that legacy should live very lively within us. It would if we could see it coming out of every ATM.

"I think in this climate, hopefully, people can see that we do have some common ground, and this is where it should begin. ... We see a model like (Tubman) and we’re inspired to the better part of ourselves and we know that freedom is possible for everyone, and that we can all participate in our democracy, not just some of us."

And that is the overarching message. By making ambiguous statements about whether Tubman's face actually will appear on the $20 bill, Mnuchin injected doubt into the efforts to take that first step.

"It’s part of our culture that men are pretty much the ones who are in charge, and capable and the leaders and heros of our country when we have amazing women heroes and amazing women leaders," Howard said. "That's what women have the power to do, is heal the nation. We look at what Tubman did. ... She just kept raising the bar and doing more. That's the way we need to all be to do more for one another and for our country. She can certainly send that message as people take the time to learn more about her.

"We so desperately need that at a time when we look like we’re coming apart at the seams, here is a fabulous seamstress."

Indeed.

Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: 313-222-5997. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include comments from the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Who’s on our money?

Only twice have women appeared on paper currency in America. In the late 1800s, Martha Washington was pictured on the $1 silver certificate. And in the 1860s, Native American Pocahontas appeared on the back of the $20 bill.

Coins also have featured the faces of American women. The Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was minted from 1979-81 and again in 1999. The Sacagawea dollar coin was minted in 2000.

Here's a look at who's on the rest of our currency: