Robert Moses, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Dorie and 
Joyce Ladner. 
(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-
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tiary for more than 60 days until she ‘‘worked off’’ 
her court fine and was released. 
(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. 
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(8) Joan also committed herself more deeply to 
the non-violent philosophy of protest through her 
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 
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challenging segregation. For her role in the Jackson 
Movement, Joan was targeted for death by the local 
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. 
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(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-
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-
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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, 
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. 
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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 
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