II 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2179

To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Reverend Oliver 

L. Brown. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 9, 2004

Mr. BROWNBACK (for himself and Mr. ROBERTS) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL

To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to the 

Reverend Oliver L. Brown.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds that—

5 (1) Oliver L. Brown is the namesake of the 

6 landmark United States Supreme Court decision of 

7 1954, Brown v. Board of Education (347 U.S. 483, 

8 1954); 

9 (2) Oliver L. Brown is honored as the lead 

10 plaintiff in the Topeka, Kansas case which posed a 
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1 legal challenge to racial segregation in public edu2 cation; 

3 (3) by 1950, African-American parents began 

4 to renew their efforts to challenge State laws that 

5 only permitted their children to attend certain 

6 schools, and as a result, they organized through the 

7 National Association for the Advancement of Col8 ored People (the NAACP), an organization founded 

9 in 1909 to address the issue of the unequal and dis10 criminatory treatment experienced by African-Ameri11 cans throughout the country; 

12 (4) Oliver L. Brown became part of the 

13 NAACP strategy led first by Charles Houston and 

14 later by Thurgood Marshall, to file suit against var15 ious school boards on behalf of such parents and 

16 their children; 

17 (5) Oliver L. Brown was a member of a distin18 guished group of plaintiffs in cases from Kansas 

19 (Brown v. Board of Education), Delaware (Gebhart 

20 v. Belton), South Carolina (Briggs v. Elliot), and 

21 Virginia (Davis v. County School Board of Prince 

22 Edward County) that were combined by the United 

23 States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Edu24 cation, and in Washington, D.C. (Bolling v. Sharpe), 
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1 considered separately by the Supreme Court with re2 spect to the District of Columbia; 

3 (6) with respect to cases filed in the State of 

4 Kansas—

5 (A) there were 11 school integration cases 

6 dating from 1881 to 1949, prior to Brown v. 

7 Board of Education in 1954; 

8 (B) in many instances, the schools for Af9 rican-American children were substandard fa10 cilities with out-of-date textbooks and often no 

11 basic school supplies; 

12 (C) in the fall of 1950, members of the To13 peka, Kansas chapter of the NAACP agreed to 

14 again challenge the ‘‘separate but equal’’ doc15 trine governing public education; 

16 (D) on February 28, 1951, the NAACP 

17 filed their case as Oliver L. Brown et al. v. The 

18 Board of Education of Topeka Kansas (which 

19 represented a group of 13 parents and 20 chil20 dren); 

21 (E) the district court ruled in favor of the 

22 school board and the case was appealed to the 

23 United States Supreme Court; 

24 (F) at the Supreme Court level, the case 

25 was combined with other NAACP cases from 
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1 Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wash2 ington, D.C. (which was later heard separately); 

3 and 

4 (G) the combined cases became known as 

5 Oliver L. Brown et al. v. The Board of Edu6 cation of Topeka, et al.; 

7 (7) with respect to the Virginia case of Davis 

8 et al. v. Prince Edward County Board of Super9 visors—

10 (A) one of the few public high schools 

11 available to African-Americans in the State of 

12 Virginia was Robert Moton High School in 

13 Prince Edward County; 

14 (B) built in 1943, it was never large 

15 enough to accommodate its student population; 

16 (C) the gross inadequacies of these class17 rooms sparked a student strike in 1951; 

18 (D) the NAACP soon joined their strug19 gles and challenged the inferior quality of their 

20 school facilities in court; and 

21 (E) although the United States District 

22 Court ordered that the plaintiffs be provided 

23 with equal school facilities, they were denied ac24 cess to the schools for white students in their 

25 area; 
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1 (8) with respect to the South Carolina case of 

2 Briggs v. R.W. Elliott—

3 (A) in Clarendon County, South Carolina, 

4 the State NAACP first attempted, unsuccess5 fully and with a single plaintiff, to take legal 

6 action in 1947 against the inferior conditions 

7 that African-American students experienced 

8 under South Carolina’s racially segregated 

9 school system; 

10 (B) by 1951, community activists con11 vinced African-American parents to join the 

12 NAACP efforts to file a class action suit in 

13 United States District Court; 

14 (C) the court found that the schools des15 ignated for African-Americans were grossly in16 adequate in terms of buildings, transportation, 

17 and teacher salaries when compared to the 

18 schools provided for white students; and 

19 (D) an order to equalize the facilities was 

20 virtually ignored by school officials, and the 

21 schools were never made equal; 

22 (9) with respect to the Delaware cases of 

23 Belton v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart—
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1 (A) first petitioned in 1951, these cases 

2 challenged the inferior conditions of 2 African3 American schools; 

4 (B) in the suburb of Claymont, Delaware, 

5 African-American children were prohibited from 

6 attending the area’s local high school, and in 

7 the rural community of Hockessin, Delaware, 

8 African-American students were forced to at9 tend a dilapidated 1-room schoolhouse, and 

10 were not provided transportation to the school, 

11 while white children in the area were provided 

12 transportation and a better school facility; 

13 (C) both plaintiffs were represented by 

14 local NAACP attorneys; and 

15 (D) though the State Supreme Court ruled 

16 in favor of the plaintiffs, the decision did not 

17 apply to all schools in Delaware; 

18 (10) with respect to the District of Columbia 

19 case of Bolling, et al. v. C. Melvin Sharpe, et al.—

20 (A) 11 African-American junior high 

21 school students were taken on a field trip to 

22 Washington, D.C.’s new John Philip Sousa 

23 School for white students only; 
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1 (B) the African-American students were 

2 denied admittance to the school and ordered to 

3 return to their inadequate school; and 

4 (C) in 1951, a suit was filed on behalf of 

5 the students, and after review with the Brown 

6 case in 1954, the United States Supreme Court 

7 ruled that segregation in the Nation’s capitol 

8 was unconstitutional; 

9 (11) on May 17, 1954, at 12:52 p.m., the 

10 United States Supreme Court ruled that the dis11 criminatory nature of racial segregation ‘‘violates the 

12 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guaran13 tees all citizens equal protection of the laws’’; 

14 (12) the decision in Brown v. Board of Edu15 cation set the stage for dismantling racial segrega16 tion throughout the country; 

17 (13) the quiet courage of Oliver L. Brown and 

18 his fellow plaintiffs asserted the right of African19 American people to have equal access to social, polit20 ical, and communal structures; 

21 (14) our country is indebted to the work of the 

22 NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., 

23 Howard University Law School, the NAACP, and 

24 the individual plaintiffs in the cases considered by 

25 the Supreme Court; 
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1 (15) Reverend Oliver L. Brown died in 1961, 

2 and because the landmark United States Supreme 

3 Court decision bears his name, he is remembered as 

4 an icon for justice, freedom, and equal rights; and 

5 (16) the national importance of the Brown v. 

6 Board of Education decision had a profound impact 

7 on American culture, affecting families, commu8 nities, and governments by outlawing racial segrega9 tion in public education, resulting in the abolition of 

10 legal discrimination on any basis. 

11 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

12 (a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Speaker of the House of 

14 Representatives and the President pro tempore of 

15 the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for 

16 the posthumous presentation, on behalf of Congress, 

17 of a gold medal of appropriate design in commemo18 ration of the Reverend Oliver L. Brown, in recogni19 tion of his and his fellow plaintiffs’ enduring con20 tributions to civil rights and American society. 

21 (2) DISPLAY.—The medal presented under 

22 paragraph (1) shall be maintained and displayed at 

23 the Brown Foundation of Topeka, Kansas. 

24 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For purposes of the 

25 presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary 
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1 of the Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Sec2 retary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, 

3 devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Sec4 retary. 

5 SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

6 The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 

7 bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 2 

8 under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at 

9 a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, 

10 materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, 

11 and the cost of the gold medal. 

12 SEC. 4. STATUS OF MEDALS. 

13 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck pursu14 ant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 

15 51 of title 31, United States Code. 

16 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 

17 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 

18 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 

19 SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF 

20 SALE. 

21 (a) AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS.—There is 

22 authorized to be charged against the United States Mint 

23 Public Enterprise Fund, such amounts as may be nec24 essary to pay for the costs of the medals struck pursuant 

25 to this Act. 
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1 (b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the 

2 sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 

3 3 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public 

4 Enterprise Fund.

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