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Woot.
The United States Mint launched a new coin Tuesday featuring jazz legend Duke Ellington, making him the first African-American to appear by himself on a circulating U.S. coin.
Ellington, the composer of classics including ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing’ appears on the ‘tails’ side of the new D.C. quarter. George Washington is on the ‘heads’ side, as is usual with U.S. quarters.
The coin was issued to celebrate Ellington’s birthplace, the District of Columbia.
Duke Ellington – Perdido (1964)
“the reparations have begun”-Glenn Reynolds
That’s cool. Other countries put their philsophers and artists on money; we just have president after president. And Franklin.
A well deserved honor for “The Duke”.
So, the first African-American on a coin is not Dr. Martin Luther King, or Frederick Douglass, or Garrett Morgan, or George Washington Carver, but an entertainer.
Color me thoroughly unimpressed.