I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8521 
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 23, 2024 
Mr. BEYER (for himself, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. 
WILLIAMS of Georgia, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. CLARKE of New 
York, Mrs. FOUSHEE, Ms. WEXTON, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mrs. 
BEATTY, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. 
HORSFORD, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. CLYBURN, 
and Mr. SCOTT of Virginia) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Financial 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, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:57 Jul 10, 2024
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H8521.IH
H8521
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Joan Trumpauer 
Mulholland Congressional Gold Medal Act’’. 
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 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:57 Jul 10, 2024
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H8521.IH
H8521
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
chance, she would work to change this separate but 
unequal system. 
(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, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:57 Jul 10, 2024
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H8521.IH
H8521
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS