Trump Drops New Coins, None with Black People, To Celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary

Frederick Douglass and Ruby Bridges were recommended to be featured on commemorative quarters but were later dumped.

President Donald Trump wants America to remember the past with new coins commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding, circulating on Jan. 5—a day before the fifth anniversary of the U.S. Capitol assault—that leave off prominent African-American leaders, NPR reports.

The 2026 semiquincentennial coins, first authorized in 2021, will feature former presidents and slave owners, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, selected by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The idea of another face on the coin is being floated around as well: a $1 coin with Trump’s face, a move associated with monarchies.

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In the early planning stages, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee recommended five commemorative quarters, featuring civil rights leaders and moments such as Frederick Douglass to celebrate the abolition of slavery, and 6-year-old Ruby Bridges to highlight the civil rights movement and American school desegregation. Another coin would highlight the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

But when the anniversary coin designs were revealed in late December 2025, Douglass, Bridges, and other quarters were nowhere to be found. The Revolutionary War and the Gettysburg Address were recognized instead.

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The move erases a story of diversity and inclusion, something the second Trump Administration has focused on since the day one. According to the Washington Post, U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said the Biden administration’s focus on DEI and critical race theory is a thing of the past. “Trump administration is dedicated to fostering prosperity and patriotism.”

The narrative is supported by Kristie McNally, acting director of the U.S. Mint, who, in a statement, said, “The designs on these historic coins depict the story of America’s journey toward a ‘more perfect union,’ and celebrate America’s defining ideals of liberty.”

In an effort to restore “patriotic education,” Trump and his team have made controversial moves to some of the nation’s most protected stations, such as national parks, monuments, and museums, to rid the nation of the true story of America and its hurtful truths.

Targeting African-American history, education departments across the country have dumped certain studies in the classroom. In early 2025, the administration issued an audit of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), claiming that lies were being told within exhibits and that there was too much focus on slavery.

But this isn’t the first time Trump has kept Black leaders from being celebrated. During his first term, Harriet Tubman’s image on the $20 bill was halted after Trump criticized the decision, made by former president Barack Obama, as “pure political correctness.”

“The question was do we focus only on what happened in 1776 and the years around that or do we also talk about everything that has happened since then,” said Lawrence Brown, a retired New York City doctor who served on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee from 2019 to 2024. “To me, the latter is just as important, if not more important, because it gives us answers to the questions of how we maintained that Constitution? How did we maintain our independence?”