I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3097 
To posthumously award a congressional gold medal to Constance Baker 
Motley. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 
Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. LEWIS, Ms. 
CLARKE, Mr. CLAY, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. WIL-
SON of Florida, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Ms. KELLY of 
Illinois, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. 
NADLER, Mr. WATT, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, and Ms. SCHAKOWSKY) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Fi-
nancial Services 
A BILL 
To posthumously award a congressional gold medal to 
Constance Baker Motley. 
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 ‘‘Congressional Tribute 
to Constance Baker Motley Act of 2013’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Constance Baker Motley was born in 1921, 
in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of immi-
grants from the Caribbean island of Nevis. 
(2) In 1943, Constance Baker Motley grad-
uated from New York University with a Bachelor of 
Arts degree in economics. 
(3) Upon receiving a law degree from Columbia 
University in 1946, Constance Baker Motley became 
a staff attorney at the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund, Inc. (in this Act referred to as 
the ‘‘LDF’’), and fought tirelessly for 2 decades 
alongside Thurgood Marshall and other leading civil 
rights lawyers to dismantle segregation throughout 
the United States. 
(4) Constance Baker Motley was the only fe-
male attorney on the LDF legal team that won the 
landmark desegregation case, Brown v. Board of 
Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). 
(5) In addition to writing briefs in Brown v. 
Board of Education, Motley was trial or appellate 
counsel in 57 civil rights cases in the United States 
Supreme Court, 82 cases in Federal courts of ap-
peals, 48 cases in Federal district courts, and nu-
merous cases in State courts. She argued four ap-
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peals in desegregation cases in one day. She won 
cases that ended de jure segregation in White only 
restaurants and lunch counters. She protected the 
right of protestors to march, sit-in, freedom ride, 
and demonstrate in other ways. She represented Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr., and other jailed civil rights 
activists and forced their release when they were ar-
rested and locked up in Southern jails. She secured 
the right for Blacks to register, vote, and have ac-
cess to the political power structure. She won edu-
cation desegregation cases in almost every State in 
the South and the District of Columbia and secured 
the right for Blacks to attend formerly all White 
public schools, colleges, and universities including 
the representation of James Meredith against the 
University of Mississippi, Charlayne Hunter Gault 
and Hamilton Holmes against the University of 
Georgia, Autherine Lucy against the University of 
Alabama, Harvey Gantt against Clemson College, 
and Ernest Morial against Louisiana State Univer-
sity. Without her victories in the courtroom, the goal 
of ending racial segregation in public schools, col-
leges, and universities, public accommodations, and 
voting—a goal of the Civil Rights Movement—may 
not have been achieved. 
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(6) As the country celebrates the 50th Anniver-
sary of the ‘‘Birmingham Movement’’, it is noted 
that Motley was the attorney who went South and 
represented Dr. King, defended his right to march 
in Birmingham, Alabama, and Albany, Georgia, and 
obtained the court order which mandated the rein-
statement of over 1,000 school children who had 
been expelled from school for demonstrating with 
Dr. King in Birmingham fifty years ago. She rep-
resented ‘‘Freedom Riders’’ who rode buses to test 
the Supreme Court’s 1960 ruling prohibiting seg-
regation in interstate transportation. She protected 
the right of Blacks to ride and sit in any vacant seat 
on buses and trains, to use bathroom facilities and 
drink from fountains in bus and train stations, to be 
served and eat at lunch counters and restaurants, to 
vote, stay in hotels, and to go to parks, museums, 
and places of public accommodations on an equal 
basis with Whites. She won the case in the Supreme 
Court that led to the reversal of all arrests and con-
victions of all of the thousands of sit-in activists. 
(7) Constance Baker Motley argued 10 major 
civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, winning 
all but one. 
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(8) Constance Baker Motley’s only loss before 
the United States Supreme Court was in Swain v. 
Alabama, 380 U.S. 202 (1965), a case in which the 
Supreme Court refused to proscribe race-based pe-
remptory challenges in cases involving African-Amer-
ican defendants, and which was later reversed in 
Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), on 
grounds that were largely asserted by Constance 
Baker Motley in the Swain case. 
(9) In 1964, Constance Baker Motley became 
the first African-American woman elected to the 
New York State Senate. 
(10) In 1965, Constance Baker Motley became 
the first African-American woman, and the first 
woman, to serve as president of the Borough of 
Manhattan. 
(11) Constance Baker Motley, in her capacity 
as an elected public official in New York, continued 
to fight for civil rights, dedicating herself to the revi-
talization of the inner city and improvement of 
urban public schools and housing. 
(12) In 1966, Constance Baker Motley was ap-
pointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson as a judge 
on the United States District Court for the Southern 
District of New York. 
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(13) The appointment of Constance Baker Mot-
ley made her the first African-American woman, and 
only the fifth woman, appointed and confirmed for 
a Federal judgeship. 
(14) In 1982, Constance Baker Motley was ele-
vated to Chief Judge of the United States District 
Court for the Southern District of New York, the 
largest Federal trial court in the United States. 
(15) Constance Baker Motley assumed senior 
status in 1986, and continued serving on the United 
States District Court for the Southern District of 
New York with distinction for nearly 2 decades. 
(16) Constance Baker Motley passed away on 
September 28, 2005, and is survived by her son, 
Joel Motley III, her 3 grandchildren, her brother, 
Edward Baker of Florida, and her sisters Eunice 
Royster and Marian Green, of New Haven, Con-
necticut. 
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 
(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The President 
pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House 
of Representatives are authorized to make appropriate ar-
rangements for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of 
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design in com-
memoration of Constance Baker Motley, in recognition of 
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her enduring contributions and service to the United 
States. 
(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purpose of the 
presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary 
of the Treasury (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. 
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 
Under such regulations as the Secretary may pre-
scribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 
bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3, at a price 
sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, mate-
rials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, and 
the cost of the gold medal. 
SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDALS. 
(a) NATIONAL MEDAL.—The medal struck under sec-
tion 3 is a national medal for purposes of chapter 51 of 
title 31, United States Code. 
(b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 
5134 of title 31, United States Code, all duplicate medals 
struck under section 4 shall be considered to be numis-
matic items. 
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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 under section 4 shall be 
deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise 
Fund. 
Æ 
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