I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1377 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Sarah Keys Evans, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 14, 2025 
Mr. DAVIS of North Carolina (for himself, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. JOHNSON of Geor-
gia, Mr. LYNCH, and Ms. ROSS) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Sarah Keys Evans, 
and for other purposes. 
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 ‘‘Sarah Keys Evans 
Congressional Gold Medal Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Sarah Keys Evans was born on April 18, 
1929, in Washington, North Carolina, in a town 
called Keysville, the second oldest of seven children. 
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(2) Sarah Keys, an Army veteran and civil 
rights pioneer, is a living example that change is 
possible if we are willing to stand up and fight for 
what is right. 
(3) Before the 1955 arrest of Rosa Parks and 
the Montgomery bus boycott that followed, there was 
Sarah Keys Evans. Her refusal to give up her seat 
on an interstate charter bus prompted the landmark 
court case, Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, 
in which the Interstate Commerce Commission 
(ICC) outlawed the segregation of Black passengers 
in buses traveling across State lines. 
(4) On August 1, 1952, Women’s Army Corps, 
Private First Class Sarah Keys, boarded a bus in 
Trenton, New Jersey, for her first home visit to 
Washington, North Carolina, since joining the mili-
tary. The bus she boarded would take her directly to 
her North Carolina destination without any required 
bus changes. 
(5) Once the bus reached Roanoke Rapids, 
North Carolina, a new driver took over the bus and 
as was custom, went through the bus and rechecked 
tickets. When he came to Ms. Keys, he told her to 
give up her seat to a White Marine who boarded the 
bus in Roanoke Rapids and move to the back of the 
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bus. Tired from her long journey and understanding 
her rights, Sarah refused. 
(6) Six years prior, in 1946, there was a Su-
preme Court decision (Morgan v. Virginia) that said 
it was illegal to practice passenger segregation on 
interstate buses, but local jurisdictions found ways 
to circumvent Federal laws. 
(7) Frustrated with her persistence, the bus 
driver announced that all passengers would be mov-
ing to a different bus, but ‘‘that woman’’ who re-
fused to change her seat, referring to Ms. Keys, 
would not be allowed to board the new bus and 
would not be allowed to continue the trip. 
(8) Shortly thereafter, two police officers ar-
rived at the bus terminal, took Sarah by the arms 
into a patrol car and drove her to the Roanoke Rap-
ids police station. Because she refused to be sub-
jected to unjust discrimination and prejudice, she 
was forced to stay in jail overnight and was fined 
$25.00 before her release. 
(9) Once Sarah arrived home and informed her 
family of the injustice she endured, her father en-
couraged her to seek legal action. 
(10) The National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People (NAACP) referred the fam-
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ily to attorney Dovey Johnson Roundtree, a Captain 
in the Women’s Army Corps, who brought her case 
before the ICC. The ICC meeting in the District of 
Columbia took place on May 12, 1954. It was de-
cided by only one member of the ICC. 
(11) New York Congressman Adam Clayton 
Powell, Jr., agreed it was not fair that the other 10 
members of the ICC were not involved in the deci-
sion. Congressman Powell helped persuade the ICC 
to reconsider its decision. 
(12) After the Supreme Court decision on 
Brown v. Board of Education on May 17, 1954, and 
with the support of Department of Justice Attorney 
General Herbert Brownell, the ICC reached a new 
decision. A majority of the ICC members had de-
cided that it was wrong for people on State-to-State 
trips to be forced to sit in certain seats on a bus be-
cause of the color of their skin and that it was 
against the law. 
(13) The ICC decision on November 25, 1955, 
went further than the Supreme Court’s ruling in 
1946 which had outlawed only unfair laws that a 
State might make, not rules that a bus company 
might make. 
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(14) In Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Com-
pany, the ICC ruled in favor of Keys Evans. In their 
decision, the Commission found the Interstate Com-
merce Act forbids segregation as the practice sub-
jects passengers to ‘‘unjust discrimination, and 
undue and unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage, 
in violation of section 216(d) of the Interstate Com-
merce Act and is therefore unlawful’’. 
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 
(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 
the House of Representatives and the President pro tem-
pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 
for the presentation, on behalf of the Congress, of a gold 
medal of appropriate design to Mrs. Sarah Keys Evans, 
in recognition of her achievements. 
(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For purposes of the 
presentation under subsection (a), the Secretary of the 
Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall 
strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and 
inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary. 
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 
(a) STRIKING OF DUPLICATES.—Under such regula-
tions as the Secretary may prescribe, the Secretary may 
strike duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck under 
section 3. 
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(b) SELLING OF DUPLICATES.—The Secretary may 
sell such duplicates under subsection (a) at a price suffi-
cient to cover the costs of such duplicates, including labor, 
materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 
(a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—Medals struck under this 
Act are national medals 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 medals struck 
under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 
Æ 
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