Requires the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate to make arrangements for the award of a Congressional Gold Medal to collectively honor the pioneers and participants of the civil rights movement in recognition of their personal sacrifice and service to their country. Directs that the Medal be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where it shall be displayed.
Expresses the sense of Congress that the Smithsonian should make the Medal available for display elsewhere, particularly at other locations associated with the civil rights movement.
[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3866 Introduced in House (IH)]
112th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 3866
To award a Congressional Gold Medal in honor of the pioneers and
participants of the Civil Rights movement.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 1, 2012
Mr. Cohen (for himself, Mr. Filner, Ms. Jackson Lee of Texas, Ms.
Moore, Ms. Lee of California, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Al Green of
Texas, Mr. Israel, Mr. Rush, Mr. Ellison, Ms. Sewell, Mr. Carson of
Indiana, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Faleomavaega, Ms. Chu, Mr. Jackson of
Illinois, Ms. Norton, Mr. Holt, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas,
Mrs. Christensen, Mr. Payne, Ms. Slaughter, Mr. Pastor of Arizona, Mr.
Bishop of New York, Mr. Yarmuth, Mr. Courtney, Mr. Carnahan, Mr. Welch,
Mr. Perlmutter, Mr. Honda, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. Capuano,
Mr. Doyle, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Clay, Ms. Richardson, Mr. Braley
of Iowa, Mr. Holden, Ms. Hahn, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Hastings of
Florida, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Johnson of Georgia,
Mr. Fattah, and Mr. David Scott of Georgia) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in
addition to the Committee on House Administration, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To award a Congressional Gold Medal in honor of the pioneers and
participants of the Civil Rights movement.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds as follows:
(1) In 1849, Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery. She was a
major conductor on the Underground Railroad and helped free
hundreds of slaves. She was also a major advocate for Women's
Rights.
(2) In 1850, the Supreme Court stated in the Dred Scott
decision that Blacks, freed or enslaved, do not have
citizenship rights.
(3) In 1861, the American Civil War began. This war was
fought because of issues between Northern and Southern States,
including States' rights versus Federal authority, westward
expansion, and slavery. The Southern States began to secede
from the Union. The war ended with the battle of Palmito Hill
in 1865.
(4) On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued
the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that ``all
persons held slaves within any States, or designated part of
the State . . . shall forever be free''.
(5) In 1864, Sojourner Truth traveled to Washington, DC, to
help integrate streetcars and was received at the White House
by President Abraham Lincoln. The same year, she was appointed
to the National Freedmen's Relief Association where she
counseled former slaves, particularly in matters of
resettlement.
(6) On January 31, 1865, the 13th Amendment, which
abolished any form of slavery in the United States, was passed.
It was ratified by the States on December 6, 1865.
(7) On June 19, 1865, the news reached Galveston, Texas,
stating the war had ended and the enslaved were now free.
(8) In 1892, Ida B. Wells Barnett began her anti-lynching
campaign. She later wrote ``Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All
Its Phases''.
(9) In 1896, the Supreme Court established the ``separate
but equal'' doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson.
(10) In July 1905, a group led by W.E.B. Du Bois, John
Hope, Fredrick L. McGhee, and William Monroe Trotter met at the
Fort Erie Hotel in Fort Erie, Ontario, opposite Buffalo, New
York, to discuss full civil liberties, an end to racial
discrimination, and recognition of human brotherhood. These 29
Black intellectuals founded the ``Niagara movement'', and the
meeting ranks as a major turning point in African-American
history.
(11) On February 12, 1909, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded. W.E.B. Du
Bois played a major role in helping form the NAACP. He was the
associate director of research and editor of ``The Crisis''.
Ida B. Wells and Marcy Church Terrell were the only two, Black
women allowed to sign ``The Call'' and attend the first NAACP
meeting.
(12) In 1909, Ida B. Wells became the founder of the Anti-
Lynching Crusade.
(13) In 1915, the NAACP launches a nationwide campaign in
opposition to the controversial film, ``Birth of a Nation''.
(14) In 1919, the Memphis NAACP became the largest branch
in the South. Pioneers of its legal activism team included
Hosea T. (H.T.) Lockard, Maxine and Vasco Smith, Russell
Sugarmon, and A.W. Willis. Through the courts, they won cases
that led to the desegregation of public transportation, of
restaurants, and public facilities.
(15) On August 25, 1925, A. Philip Randolph announced the
formation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This was
the first major all Black labor union.
(16) In February 1926, the second week in the month was
marked as Negro History Week by Carter G. Woodson, the father
of Black history.
(17) In 1935, NAACP lawyers Charles Hamilton Houston and
Thurgood Marshall won a legal battle to admit a Black student
to the University of Maryland.
(18) In 1936, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune became the first
African-American woman to head a Federal office, the Division
of Negro Affairs of the Division of Negro Affairs of the
National Youth Administration.
(19) On April 3, 1939, in an effort led by civil rights
leaders, Walter White (NAACP), A. Philip Randolph, and Judge
William H. Hastie, Public Law 18 was passed by Congress. This
bill contained an amendment that designated funds to train
African-American pilots.
(20) In 1941, Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph, and A.J.
Muste proposed a march on Washington to end segregation and
racial discrimination in the Armed Forces. The march never
happened because President Roosevelt issued Executive Order
8802 (the Fair Employment Act).
(21) In March 1941, after years of being pressured by civil
rights organizations, an all African-American pursuit squadron
(99th Pursuit) in Tuskegee, Alabama, was formed. These
gentlemen were known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee
Airmen were well respected fighter groups in World War II and
led the way to the United States military being fully
integrated. The airmen were led by Captain Benjamin O. Davis,
Jr. They won their first aerial victory on July 2, 1943,
against the Luftwaffe.
(22) In 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was
founded by a group of students at the University of Chicago.
Founding members included James L. Farmer, Jr., George Houser,
James R. Robinson, and Bernice Fisher. It is the third oldest
civil rights group in the United States. Roy Innis is the
current president and has been leading the organization since
1964.
(23) In December 1943, Paul Roberson addressed Major League
Baseball owners about integrating their teams.
(24) In 1946, the NAACP effort to end segregation in
interstate bus transportation was supported by the Supreme
Court ruling in Morgan v. Virginia.
(25) On April 9, 1947, CORE tests Morgan v. Virginia
(outlawing segregation during bus traveling) and sends a group
of Freedom Riders on a Journey of Reconciliation around the
South.
(26) On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first
Black Major League Baseball player.
(27) On July 26, 1948, President Truman signs into act
Executive Order 9981, establishing equality in the Armed Forces
regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin.
(28) On June 8, 1953, the court ruled segregation in eating
places was unconstitutional in Washington, DC. Mary Church
Terrell, Clark F. King, Essie Thompson, Arthur F. Elmer, and
Attorney Ringgold Hart played an instrumental role in this
ruling.
(29) On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of
desegregating the school systems in the landmark case Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The gentlemen that worked
on this landmark case were: Thurgood Marshall, NAACP Legal
Defense Fund chief counsel, George E.C. Hayes, James M. Nabrit,
Jack Greenberg, Robert L. Carter, Charles Scott, and Charles E.
Bledsoe.
(30) On May 7, 1955, Rev. George Lee was murdered in
Belzoni, Mississippi. Rev. Lee was one of the first Black
people registered to vote in Humphreys County and used his
pulpit and his printing press to urge others to vote. He was
offered protection if he agreed to end his voter registration
efforts. Rev. Lee refused to end those efforts.
(31) On August 13, 1955, Lamar Smith, who had organized
Blacks to vote in a recent election, was shot and killed by a
White man on the courthouse lawn in Brookhaven, Mississippi,
while dozens of people watched. The killer was never indicted
because no one would admit they saw a White man shoot a Black
man.
(32) On August 28, 1955, Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old
boy visiting Mississippi from Chicago, was beaten, shot and his
body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River for reportedly
flirting with a White woman in a store. Till's mother had an
open casket public funeral, which was attended by thousands and
images of his mutilated body were published in magazines and
newspapers, shining light on the condition of Black civil
rights in the South.
(33) On October 22, 1955, John Earl Reese, 16, was shot and
killed while dancing in a cafe when White men shot into the
windows. The shootings were part of an attempt by Whites to
terrorize Blacks into giving up plans for a new school.
(34) On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for
refusing to give up her seat to a White passenger. Her action
sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, which was led by Dr. King.
The buses were finally desegregated on December 21, 1956.
(35) January 23, 1957, Willie Edwards, Jr., a truck driver,
was forced at gunpoint to jump off a bridge by four Klansmen in
Montgomery, Alabama. The men mistook Edwards for another man
who they believed was dating a White woman.
(36) Between January and February 1957, the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was formed by Martin
Luther King, Jr., Bayard Rustin, Charles Steele, Joseph Lowery,
Fred Shuttlesworth, Ella Baker, and Rev. Ralph Abernathy.
Andrew Jackson Young served as vice president and was a top
aide to Dr. King.
(37) In 1957, Dr. Dorothy Irene Height was the fourth
elected president of the National Council of Negro Women and
held the position from 1957-1998.
(38) In September 1957, the Little Rock Nine integrated
Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Little Rock
Nine consisted of Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson
Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean
Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed, and Melba
Pattillo Beals.
(39) In 1957, civil rights leader, Maxine Smith began her
fight for civil rights. She was denied admission to Memphis
State because she was Black. This began her relationship with
the NAACP where she served as a volunteer executive secretary.
She coordinated sit-ins, protests, and voters' registration
drives during her tenure.
(40) On April 25, 1959, Mack Charles Parker, 23, was
beaten, shot and thrown in the Pearl River in Poplarville,
Mississippi, by a masked mob. He was accused of raping a White
woman and was taken from his cell three days before his case
was set for trial.
(41) In, 1959, Russell Sugarmon ran for public works
commissioner in a racially charged race. He was the first
African-American to make a serious bid for a major city office
in Memphis, Tennessee.
(42) In 1960, Harry Belafonte was named a cultural advisor
to the Peace Corps under President John F. Kennedy. Belafonte
was one of Dr. King's closest confidants. He paid Dr. King's
bail when he was in a Birmingham jail. He helped finance the
Freedom Rides, voters' registrations drive, and helped organize
the March on Washington in 1963.
(43) On February 1, 1960, four Black students (Joseph
McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond)
from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College began
the Greensboro sit-in. By the end of the first week, other
cities were participating in the sit-in movement in other
cities in North Carolina. Many of these sit-ins were successful
in desegregating lunch counters and public places.
(44) On February 13, 1960, a nonviolent sit-in effort began
in Nashville, Tennessee, to end segregation at lunch counters
in downtown Nashville. The Nashville Student Movement and the
Nashville Christian Leadership Council coordinated the sit-in
campaign. The participants endured verbal and physical abuse.
After weeks of turmoil, store owners and protest leaders were
able to reach an agreement. The Nashville sit-in movement led
to it being the first major city to begin desegregation of its
public facilities when several stores desegregated their
counters on May 10, 1960.
(45) On March 19, 1960, sit-ins in Memphis were launched by
students from LeMoyne College and Owen Junior College at the
main public library and local department stores. Protests in
Memphis continued throughout the summer of 1960 and resulted in
the integration of the local bus lines and the City's parks. It
was led by Marion Barry, Grace Meacham, and other SNCC members.
(46) On April 16, 1960, 150 college students in the North
and the South played an important role in forcing the inception
of desegregation by forming the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) which led to the national sit-in effort, the
``Freedom Rides'' in 1961, and the historic March on Washington
in 1963. Several of the SNCC's chairmen included Marion Barry,
Charles F. McDew, Julian Bond, Stokely Carmichael, and John
Lewis led the organization during its early period. By the end
of April 1960, a sit-in had occurred in every Southern State.
(47) On May 4, 1961, student volunteers began a bus
movement from Washington, DC, to southern States to test out
the desegregation laws in interstate travel facilities. They
were later known as the ``Freedom Riders.''
(48) On September 25, 1961, Herbert Lee was killed in
Liberty, Mississippi, by a State legislator who claimed self-
defense and was never arrested. He worked with civil rights
leader Bob Moses to help register Black voters.
(49) In 1961, the ``Memphis 13'' was the first group of
Black students to integrate four Memphis City Schools: Bruce,
Gordon, Rozelle, and Springdale elementary. The 13 students
were Joyce White, Menelik Fombi (formerly Michael Willis),
Dwania Kyles, Harry Williams, Sheila Malone Conway, Sharon
Malone, E.C. Freeman Fentress, Leandrew Wiggins, Deborah Holt,
Pamela Mayes, Alvin Freeman, Jacqueline Moore, and Clarence
Williams.
(50) In 1961, Whitney Young became executive director of
the National Urban League and expanded the organization's role
in the Civil Rights movement. He proposed a domestic ``Marshall
Plan'' to provide Federal aid to cities and portions of the
plan were included in President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on
Poverty. Young was also one of the March on Washington
organizers.
(51) On April 9, 1962, Cpl. Roman Ducksworth, Jr., a
military police officer stationed in Maryland, was ordered off
a bus by a police officer and shot to death in Taylorsville,
Mississippi. He was on leave to visit his sick wife.
(52) On September 30, 1962, after a 16-month legal battle
to integrate the University of Mississippi, United States
marshals escorted James Meredith on to the school's campus to
register him for the fall semester. Paul Guihard, a reporter
for a French news service, was shot and killed by a White mob
during protests over the admission of Meredith to the
University.
(53) On April 23, 1963, William Lewis Moore, a postman from
Baltimore, was shot and killed during a one man march against
segregation. He was planning to deliver a letter to the
governor of Mississippi urging an end to intolerance.
(54) On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers, Mississippi's NAACP
field secretary, was murdered outside his home in Jackson,
Mississippi.
(55) On June 29, 1963, Malcolm X led the Unity Rally in
Harlem, which was one of the largest civil rights events.
(56) On August 28, 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs
and Freedom was held in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The
march was organized and coordinated by Bayard Rustin, Dr.
Dorothy Irene Height, Harry Belafonte, A. Philip Randolph, and
others. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his ``I Have a
Dream'' speech to nearly 200,000 people.
(57) On September 15, 1963, four little girls (Denise
McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae
Collins) were murdered when a bomb went off at Sixteenth Street
Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Virgil Lamar Ware, 13,
was shot to death by White teenagers who had come from a
segregationist rally held after the church bombing.
(58) On January 31, 1964, Louis Allen was killed in
Liberty, Mississippi, on the day he was making final
arrangements to move north. Allen witnessed the murder of civil
rights worker Herbert Lee and endured years of harassment,
threats, and being jailed.
(59) On March 23, 1964, Johnnie Mae Chappell was killed in
Jacksonville, Florida, as she walked along a roadside while men
were looking for a Black person to shoot after a day of racial
unrest.
(60) On April 7, 1964, Rev. Bruce Klunder was crushed to
death when a bulldozer backed over him. He was protesting the
building of a segregated school.
(61) In 1964, SNCC helped organize the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party (MFDP), which challenged the legitimacy and
seating of Mississippi's officially recognized Democratic
Party. During the ``Freedom Summer'', Harry Belafonte helped
fund the SNCC's voting registration efforts.
(62) In 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer established the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). She also delivered a national
televised speech to the Credentials Committee discussing the
hardship activists were experiencing with voting.
(63) In 1964, Mr. H.T. Lockard, a Memphis civil rights
pioneer, was elected to the old Shelby County Quarterly Court
(County Commission). From there he became the first Black man
to join a governor's cabinet under Governor Buford Ellington
from 1967 through 1971. He served on the National Civil Rights
Museum Board from 1989 through 1999.
(64) On May 2, 1964, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie
Moore were killed in Meadville, Mississippi, by Klansmen who
believed the two were part of a plot to arm Blacks in the area
(there was no such plot).
(65) On June 21, 1964, civil rights workers James Chaney (a
Mississippian resident), Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner
were assisting with helping African-Americans register to vote
during Freedom Summer. After being arrested by the police and
released after several hours, they were murdered by the Ku Klux
Klan. Their bodies were found near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
(66) On July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil
Rights Act of 1964.
(67) On July 11, 1964, Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn, a Washington,
DC, educator was shot to death by Klansmen in a passing car
when he was driving home from United States Army Reserves
training in Colbert, Georgia.
(68) In 1965, Benjamin Hooks became the first Black
criminal court judge in Tennessee history.
(69) In 1965, Dr. Dorothy Irene Height was named the first
director of the YWCA's Center for Racial Justice.
(70) On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot to death in
Harlem, New York.
(71) On February 26, 1965, Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten
and shot by State troopers as he tried to protect his
grandfather and mother from a trooper attack on civil rights
marchers in Marion, Alabama.
(72) On March 7, 1965, ``Bloody Sunday'' took place as 600
marchers tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma,
Alabama, in support of voting rights and were attacked by State
and local police. This effort was led by John Lewis of SNCC and
the Rev. Hosea Williams of SCLC. It took the marchers three
times to finally cross over the Pettus Bridge.
(73) On March 11, 1965, Rev. James Reeb, a Unitarian
minister from Boston, was beaten to death by White men while he
walked down a Selma Street. Rev. Reeb was one of the many White
clergymen who joined the Selma marchers after the attack by
State troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
(74) On March 25, 1965, Viola Gregg Luizzo, a housewife and
mother from Detroit, drove alone to Alabama to help with the
Selma march after seeing televised reports of the attack at the
Edmund Pettus Bridge. She was driving marchers back to Selma
from Montgomery when she was shot and killed by a Klansman in a
passing car.
(75) On June 2, 1965, Oneal Moore was killed when he and
his partner were shot from a passing car. Moore was one of two
Black deputies hired by White officials to appease civil rights
demands.
(76) On July 9, 1965, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was
passed by Congress.
(77) On July 18, 1965, Willie Brewster was shot and killed
by White men on his way home from work in Anniston, Alabama.
The men belonged to the National States Rights Party, a violent
neo-Nazi group whose members had been involved in church
bombings and murders of Blacks.
(78) On August 20, 1965, Jonathan Myrick Daniels, an
Episcopal Seminary student in Boston, was shot and killed by a
deputy sheriff in Hayneville, Alabama. Daniels came to Alabama
to help with Black voter registration in Lowndes County.
(79) On September 24, 1965, President Johnson issues
Executive Order 11246 enforcing affirmative action.
(80) In 1966, Constance Baker Motley becomes first African-
American female appointed to the Federal bench.
(81) On January 3, 1966, Samuel Leamno Younge, Jr., a
student civil rights activist, was shot and killed by a White
gas station owner after an argument over segregated restrooms
in Tuskegee, Alabama.
(82) On January 10, 1966, Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer, a
wealthy businessman, died from severe burns when his home was
firebombed in Hattiesburg, Mississipi. Dahmer offered to pay
toll taxes for those who couldn't afford the fee required to
vote.
(83) On June 10, 1966, Ben Chester White, a caretaker on a
plantation who had no involvement in civil rights work, was
murdered by Klansmen who thought they could divert attention
from a civil rights march by killing a Black person in Natchez,
Mississippi.
(84) On July 30, 1966, Clarence Triggs, a bricklayer who
attended civil rights meetings sponsored by the Congress of
Racial Equality, was found dead on the roadside with a gunshot
through the head in Bogalusa, Louisiana.
(85) On November 8, 1966, Edward Brooke, a Republican from
Massachusetts, was the first Black United States Senator in 85
years.
(86) On October 15 1966, the Black Panthers are founded by
Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
(87) On February 27, 1967, Wharlest Jackson, treasurer of
his local NAACP Chapter in Natchez, Mississippi, was killed
when a bomb that was planted in his car exploded. The bomb was
planted in his car after Jackson was promoted to a position
previously reserved for Whites.
(88) On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his death,
Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered ``Beyond Vietnam'' at the
New York City Riverside Church. In his speech he condemned the
United States role in the war. He also stated that the United
States needed to reconsider their morals. King was against the
war because the money could have been used to fight the war on
poverty. He was also against African-Americans fighting for a
country that treated them as second-class citizens.
(89) On May 12, 1967, Benjamin Brown, a former civil rights
organizer, was killed by stray gunshots from police into a
crowd when watching a student protest in Jackson, Mississippi.
(90) On August 30, 1967, Thurgood Marshall was named the
first African-American to the Supreme Court.
(91) On February 8, 1968, Samuel Ephesians Hammond, Jr.,
Delano Herman Middleton, and Henry Ezekial Smith were shot and
killed by police who fired on student demonstrators at the
South Carolina State College Campus in Orangeburg, South
Carolina.
(92) On March 29, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., went to
Memphis, Tennessee, to help support Black sanitary public
workers represented by the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1733 in their fight for
better wages and treatment. The march that was organized for
the workers became violent and unsuccessful.
(93) On April 3, 1968, in an effort to have a peaceful
march for the sanitation workers, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
returned to Memphis. The night before his death he delivered
``I've Been to the Mountaintop'' at Mason Temple.
(94) On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was
murdered outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis,
Tennessee.
(95) On April 11, 1968, President Johnson signed the Civil
Rights Act of 1968.
(96) In May 1968, Ralph Abernathy took over the SCLC Poor
People's Campaign after the death of Dr. King.
(97) In 1971, Morris Dees, Jr., and Joseph J. Levin, Jr.,
founded the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Julian Bond was
named the first president. With the mission of seeking justice
and equality for society's most vulnerable, SPLC has shut down
some of the Nation's most dangerous hate groups by winning
crushing, multimillion-dollar jury verdicts on behalf of their
victims.
(98) On April 20, 1971, the Supreme Court decision in Swann
v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, initiates a busing
effort to integrate public school systems.
(99) In 1972, Benjamin Hooks was appointed as one of the
five commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) under the Nixon administration.
(100) In February 1976, Negro History Week was expanded to
Black History Month.
(101) On November 3, 1983, the Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Federal holiday was established.
(102) In 1987, Morris Dees won a $7 million judgment for
the mother of Michael Donald, a Black lynching victim in
Mobile, Alabama, in a suit against the Ku Klux Klan.
(103) On March 22, 1988, Congress passes the Civil Rights
Restoration Act over President Reagan's veto.
(104) On October 1, 1989, Army General Colin Powell becomes
the first Black to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.
(105) On July 5, 1991, the National Civil Rights Museum
opens at King's assassination site in Memphis.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Award Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of Representatives
and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate
arrangements for the award, on behalf of the Congress, of a gold medal
of appropriate design in honor of the pioneers and participants of the
Civil Rights movement, collectively, in recognition of their personal
sacrifice and service to their country.
(b) Design and Striking.--For the purposes of the award referred to
in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (hereafter in this Act
referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall strike the gold medal with
suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the
Secretary.
(c) Smithsonian Institution.--
(1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal
referred to in subsection (a) in honor of the pioneers and
participants of the Civil Rights Movement, the gold medal shall
be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where it shall be
displayed.
(2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal received
under this paragraph available for display elsewhere,
particularly at other locations associated with the Civil
Rights Movement.
SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the
Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal
struck under section 2, at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the
medals, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and
overhead expenses.
SEC. 4. NATIONAL MEDALS.
Medals struck pursuant to this Act are National medals for purposes
of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.
(a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to be
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund such
amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs of the medals struck
pursuant to this Act.
(b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate
bronze medals authorized under section 3 shall be deposited into the
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on House Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on House Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR H464)
Referred to the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology.
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