D.C. Celebrates Duke Ellington Quarter Release

[eppur_se_muova]

Jazz legend is first black American to be featured on coin in circulation

Jazz musician Duke Ellington has become the first black American to be prominently featured on a U.S. coin in circulation with the release of a quarter honoring the District of Columbia.
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Ellington beat out designs featuring abolitionist Frederick Douglass and astronomer Benjamin Banneker.

Last year, the Mint rejected a proposed design for the D.C. quarter that included the slogan “Taxation Without Representation," a phrase borrowed by D.C. residents to voice objections that they pay federal taxes without full representation in Congress. Instead, the Ellington coin includes the D.C. motto “Justice for All."
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Prior to the Ellington quarter, the only U.S. coin to depict a black person was a 2003 Missouri state coin that featured explorers Lewis and Clark with a black slave named York, Mint spokeswoman Carla Coolman said.

Commemorative coins have also featured black figures but those coins weren't put into circulation.
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more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29372556/





OK, help me out here ... and the reason they haven't put MLKJ on a coin yet is because ...?