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[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1355 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>

116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1355

 To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Simeon Booker in 
 recognition of his achievements in the field of journalism, including 
   his reporting during the Civil Rights movement and his social and 
                         political commentary.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 25, 2019

Mr. Ryan (for himself, Mr. Joyce of Ohio, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Lowenthal, 
   Mr. Hastings, Mr. Johnson of Ohio, Mr. Pascrell, Mrs. Beatty, Ms. 
Moore, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Lawson of Florida, Ms. Norton, Ms. Johnson of 
       Texas, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Mr. 
Krishnamoorthi, Mr. Raskin, Mr. Meeks, Ms. Fudge, Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms. 
 Schakowsky, Ms. Sewell of Alabama, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Cohen, Mr. 
    Smith of Washington, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, and Mr. Rush) 
 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 posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Simeon Booker in 
 recognition of his achievements in the field of journalism, including 
   his reporting during the Civil Rights movement and his social and 
                         political commentary.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr., was born on August 27, 
        1918, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Reberta Waring and Simeon 
        Saunders Booker, Sr., a YMCA director and minister.
            (2) After his family moved to Youngstown, Ohio, Booker 
        became interested in journalism.
            (3) Booker promoted and wrote about Negro League baseball 
        teams in Youngstown's local newspaper, The Vindicator.
            (4) In 1945, he moved back to Ohio to work for the Call and 
        Post, where he became the first African-American reporter to 
        win a Newspaper Guild Award for his series on Cleveland, Ohio, 
        slum housing, and a Willkie Award for reporting on racial 
        inequities in the public schools.
            (5) In 1950, Booker was the recipient of the Nieman 
        Fellowship from Harvard University to study journalism and 
        develop his talent as a reporter.
            (6) After leaving Harvard in 1951, Booker became the first 
        full-time African-American reporter at The Washington Post.
            (7) In 1955, he helped to advance the civil rights movement 
        with his famous coverage of the Emmett Till murder and trial, 
        turning a common occurrence in the Deep South into a national 
        tragedy that united the Black community.
            (8) He remained at the forefront of the civil rights 
        movement, reporting on the 1957 integration of Central High 
        School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
            (9) In 1961, he rode with the Congress on Racial Equality 
        (CORE) Freedom Riders through the Deep South.
            (10) When the Freedom Riders were firebombed and beaten in 
        Anniston, Alabama, in a Ku Klux Klan ambush, Booker arranged 
        for their rescue by calling U.S. Attorney General Robert F. 
        Kennedy.
            (11) In two wartime tours of Vietnam in the 1960s, he 
        interviewed Black troops on the front lines, and took enemy 
        fire in a helicopter with United States Army General William 
        Westmoreland for reports for Jet and Ebony magazines.
            (12) He has chronicled the most tumultuous period in 
        American history in two highly acclaimed books, Shocking the 
        Conscience: A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement 
        (University Press of Mississippi, 2013), and Black Man's 
        America (Prentice Hall, 1964).
            (13) Often called the ``dean of the black press'', as chief 
        of Ebony and Jet magazines' Washington bureau, he interviewed 
        presidents, senators and representatives, members of the 
        judiciary, cabinet officers, foreign ambassadors, and other 
        important members of the Washington community. His column, 
        ``Ticker Tape U.S.A.'' became a must-read for politicians and 
        government officials.
            (14) He covered every Presidential election since the 
        Eisenhower Administration in his fifty-three years with Johnson 
        Publishing until he retired in 2007.
            (15) In 1982, Booker received one of the most prestigious 
        awards in journalism, the National Press Club's Fourth Estate 
        Award.
            (16) His honors and awards include: Nieman Fellowship, 
        Harvard University 1950; elected president of the Capitol Press 
        Club, 1956; Fourth Estate Award, National Press Club, 1982; 
        inducted into Hall of Fame, Washington Chapter of Sigma Delta 
        Chi, and Hall of Fame of Washington, DC, 1984; Master 
        Communicators Award, National Black Media Coalition, 1998; 
        Phoenix Award, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, 2010; 
        inducted into Hall of Fame, National Association of Black 
        Journalists, 2013.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of 
Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate shall make 
appropriate arrangements for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of 
the Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design, in commemoration 
of Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr., in recognition of his achievements in 
the field of journalism, including his reporting during the Civil 
Rights movement and his social and political commentary.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the presentation referred 
to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred to in 
this Act as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a 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 in 
        honor of Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr., under subsection (a), the 
        gold medal shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where 
        it shall be available for display as appropriate and made 
        available for research.
            (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
        the Smithsonian Institution shall make the gold medal received 
        under paragraph (1) available for display elsewhere, 
        particularly at other appropriate locations associated with the 
        life of Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr.

SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck pursuant to section 2 under such regulations as the 
Secretary may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost 
thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and 
overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal.

SEC. 4. STATUS OF MEDALS.

    (a) National Medals.--The medals struck pursuant to this Act are 
national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States 
Code.
    (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of sections 5134 and 5136 of 
title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.
                                 <all>
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