I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3622 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Joan Trumpauer Mulholland in 
recognition of her unique and substantial contributions to American 
life through her life-long commitment to social justice and equality for 
all citizens, exhibited both through direct action, at great personal risk, 
and through ongoing educational activities. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 29, 2025 
Mr. BEYER (for himself, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. 
KELLY of Illinois, Ms. NORTON, and Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Finan-
cial Services 
A BILL 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Joan Trumpauer 
Mulholland in recognition of her unique and substantial 
contributions to American life through her life-long com-
mitment to social justice and equality for all citizens, 
exhibited both through direct action, at great personal 
risk, and through ongoing educational activities. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Joan Trumpauer 
Mulholland Congressional Gold Medal Act’’. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:25 Jun 03, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3622.IH
H3622
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Joan Trumpauer Mulholland was born on 
September 14, 1941, in Washington, DC, to Merle 
(Chandler) Nelson of Oconee, Georgia, and Ealton 
‘‘Bud’’ Nelson of Essex, Iowa, and went on to di-
rectly challenge America’s racial segregation prac-
tices in the American South during the student-led 
nonviolent civil rights movement of the early 1960s 
and became a lifelong educator on the benefits of a 
multi-cultural, pluralistic society. 
(2) Her expressed Christian faith and under-
standing of America’s founding documents led the 
young Joan to believe, that ‘‘all men are created 
equal’’ in the eyes of her Creator as well as on the 
scales of Justice. As a 10 year old girl, Joan’s eyes 
were opened to the extreme inequality of the races 
when, while visiting her grandmother in rural Geor-
gia, she came upon a dilapidated wooden shack that 
served as the schoolhouse for the community’s Black 
children and compared it to the newly constructed 
block and brick school for the community’s White 
children. She vowed then that if she ever had a 
chance, she would work to change this separate but 
unequal system. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:25 Jun 03, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3622.IH
H3622
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
(3) Joan graduated from Annandale High 
School in Northern Virginia in the spring of 1959 
and began attending Duke University in Durham, 
North Carolina, that fall. On February 1, 1960, dur-
ing her second semester at Duke, four young Black 
college students entered Woolworth’s five and dime 
store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and challenged 
its segregated dining policy by sitting in at the 
Whites-only lunch counter. That event set off a na-
tionwide reckoning over Southern segregation prac-
tices. When students from North Carolina College 
visited her church to speak on their experiences chal-
lenging the established norms, they invited those 
present to join the fight. Joan attended that presen-
tation and decided this was her chance to help 
change things and immediately began sitting in with 
other like-minded students at downtown Durham’s 
five and dime stores, leading to her first arrest. She 
also joined the newly formed Student Non-Violent 
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and committed 
herself to working for racial equality through non-
violent means, eventually working alongside such 
Movement luminaries as John Lewis, Julian Bond, 
Robert Moses, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Dorie and 
Joyce Ladner. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:25 Jun 03, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3622.IH
H3622
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
(4) During the summer of 1960, Joan worked 
with a DC-affiliate of SNCC, the Non-Violent Action 
Group, to protest local segregation policies in the 
National Capitol Region, integrating establishments 
in all 3 locales, including those in her own commu-
nity of Arlington, Virginia. In addition, Joan joined 
the staff of Senator Clair Engel of California and 
worked in his office on Capitol Hill until the Free-
dom Movement once again called for her deeper in-
volvement. 
(5) In the spring of 1961, Joan joined the Con-
gress of Racial Equality (CORE) Freedom Rides, 
working to integrate interstate travel facilities 
throughout the South. CORE sent her by plane to 
New Orleans and then by train to Jackson, Mis-
sissippi, where she was arrested and placed first in 
local jails, where she kept a secret diary of her expe-
riences—now considered an important historical ar-
tifact of the Freedom Rider era. After two weeks in 
local jails, Joan was sent to Parchman Penitentiary 
where she, along with other committed activists, was 
held on death row for challenging the established 
policies of segregation. Joan was held in the peniten-
tiary for more than 60 days until she ‘‘worked off’’ 
her court fine and was released. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:25 Jun 03, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3622.IH
H3622
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
(6) In the fall of 1961, Joan was accepted to 
the Historically Black Tougaloo College on the out-
skirts of Jackson to further her education as well as 
to continue challenging the existing segregated 
order. She became the first full-time matriculating 
White student in the history of the college, gar-
nering headlines in national newspapers and maga-
zines for what was then regarded as ‘‘reverse inte-
gration’’. Also, Joan, along with other Freedom Rid-
ers who decided to remain in Jackson, became part 
of the vanguard of the movement for civil and voting 
rights in the State of Mississippi. She helped form 
the Non-Violent Jackson Movement, which imme-
diately began challenging segregation on city buses 
and in public buildings, including courtrooms. It be-
came her mission to help the South move on from 
its polarized and self-defeating system of racial seg-
regation and learn to build a more equitable social 
order. 
(7) On April 6, 1963, Joan became a member 
of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a Black Greek 
organization. She is recognized as one of the first 
white members of the esteemed Sorority. 
(8) Joan also committed herself more deeply to 
the non-violent philosophy of protest through her 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:25 Jun 03, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3622.IH
H3622
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
reading of works by Henry David Thoreau and 
Mohandas Gandhi. Joan’s commitment to non-
violence was sorely tested during the May 28, 1963, 
Jackson Woolworth’s sit-in, which she joined after 
one of her classmates was knocked from his stool 
and brutally kicked by a violent bystander and then 
arrested by the police. Joan took his place at the 
counter and for the next two-and-a-half hours faced 
the ire of a gathering mob as they jeered and then 
punched, pulled, and assaulted the demonstrators, 
dousing them with ketchup and mustard, salt and 
sugar, and calling them all manner of racist slurs as 
attempted to maintain their ‘‘Southern Way of 
Life’’. Joan and her colleagues held their positions 
at the counter and their refusal to strike back at 
those assaulting them won the hearts of many who 
saw the now-iconic photograph of the Jackson sit-in 
and helped turn the tide in the fight for equal treat-
ment of all Americans. 
(9) The Jackson Woolworth’s sit-in triggered 
additional massive nonviolent demonstrations for 
civil rights within the city of Jackson in which more 
than 1,000 youth, including Joan, were arrested for 
challenging segregation. For her role in the Jackson 
Movement, Joan was targeted for death by the local 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:25 Jun 03, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3622.IH
H3622
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
Ku Klux Klan, as were a number of her colleagues, 
including NAACP leader Medgar Evers, who would, 
indeed, be assassinated two weeks to the day after 
the Woolworth’s sit in at his home in Jackson. Dur-
ing the summer of 1963, Joan moved back to Wash-
ington, DC, where she attended Evers’s burial at Ar-
lington Cemetery. 
(10) In all, Joan participated in more than 
three-dozen direct action campaigns throughout the 
South during her college years, including those in 
Rock Hill, South Carolina and Baltimore, Maryland, 
before graduating from Tougaloo College in the 
spring of 1964 and moving back to her native Vir-
ginia to begin her adult life. She started her working 
career as a clerk for the Smithsonian Institution be-
fore transferring to join the newly forming Commu-
nity Relations Service, ‘‘America’s Peacemaker’’, 
first housed in the Department of Commerce and 
later with the Department of Justice. During this 
time, Joan remained active in the civil rights field, 
participating in the Selma to Montgomery March in 
1965 and in the March Against Fear in 1966. 
(11) Joan eventually married and left public 
service to start a family. Once her five boys were 
school-age, Joan rejoined the workforce as a teach-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:25 Jun 03, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3622.IH
H3622
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
er’s assistant in the Arlington County Public 
Schools, where she became known for encouraging a 
multi-cultural approach to learning, pulling from her 
many world travels and her knowledge of sociology 
to help immigrants appreciate their own cultures 
while helping them integrate into the American way 
of life. After more than 30 years as an educator, 
Joan retired and embarked on a third career as a 
civil rights ambassador, traveling the country talking 
about her experiences and encouraging others to get 
involved in public life to make a difference. 
(12) For her service in the Civil Rights Move-
ment and as an ambassador of nonviolence, Joan 
has been awarded many honors, including the He-
roes Against Hate Award from the Anti-Defamation 
League, the National Civil Rights Museum’s Free-
dom Award, the International Civil Rights Museum’s 
Trailblazer Award, the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s 
Award of Honor, and the Simeon Booker Award for 
Courage. In February of 2023, Joan was honored by 
the Virginia General Assembly and was received on 
the Floor of the Virginia State Senate ‘‘for her inim-
itable role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s 
and her ongoing commitment to educating others 
about equality and social justice’’. In May of 2023, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:25 Jun 03, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3622.IH
H3622
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane 
Letters by her alma mater, Tougaloo College, for her 
service to humanity. 
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 
(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZATION.—The Speaker 
of the House of Representatives and the President pro 
tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrange-
ments for the presentation, on behalf of the Congress, of 
a gold medal of appropriate design to Joan Trumpauer 
Mulholland, in recognition of her unique and substantial 
contributions to American life through her life-long com-
mitment to social justice and equality for all citizens, ex-
hibited both through direct action, at great personal risk, 
and through ongoing educational activities. 
(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 ‘‘Sec-
retary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, 
devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Sec-
retary. 
(c) DISPOSITION OF MEDAL.—Following the presen-
tation described in subsection (a), the gold medal shall be 
given to Joan Trumpauer Mulholland or, if unavailable, 
to her son, Loki Mulholland. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:25 Jun 03, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3622.IH
H3622
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 
bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3, at 
a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, 
materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 
(a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck pursu-
ant 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. 
SEC. 6. 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 nec-
essary to pay for the cost of the medals struck under this 
Act. 
(b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the 
sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 
4 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public 
Enterprise Fund. 
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:25 Jun 03, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00010
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\H3622.IH
H3622
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS