Robert Parris Moses Congressional Gold Medal Act
Bill: H.R.6836 | Sponsor: Rep. Espaillat, Adriano (D-NY)
Policy area: Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

Summary:
Robert Parris Moses Congressional Gold Medal Act
This bill provides for the award of a Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to Robert Parris Moses in recognition of his achievements and contributions to American education and civil rights.

To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Robert Parris 
    Moses, in recognition of his achievements and contributions to 
             advancing American education and civil rights.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

     This Act may be cited as the ``Robert Parris Moses Congressional 
Gold Medal Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that:
            (1) Robert Parris Moses was born in Harlem, New York City, 
        on January 23, 1935.
            (2) Robert Parris Moses is regarded as an influential civil 
        rights activist, peace activist, public education advocate, and 
        math literacy educator.
            (3) Moses grew up in Harlem River Houses and was one of 
        only a handful of Black students at the time who was admitted 
        to Stuyvesant High School.
            (4) Moses earned a scholarship to Hamilton College in 
        Clinton, New York, and subsequently obtained a master's degree 
        in philosophy from Harvard University in 1957.
            (5) His doctorate studies in mathematics were halted due to 
        the death of his mother and the hospitalization of his father.
            (6) In 1959, Moses helped with the second Youth March for 
        Integrated Schools in Washington, DC.
            (7) Moses visited Mississippi in the summer of 1960, and 
        met with local National Association for the Advancement of 
        Colored People (NAACP) leaders who indicated the need to focus 
        on voter registration. He returned to Mississippi after 
        teaching the 1960-1961 school year in New York, where he 
        organized and registered thousands of poor, illiterate, and 
        rural Black residents to vote.
            (8) As a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating 
        Committee, in 1964, Moses helped organize the Mississippi 
        ``Freedom'' Summer Project.
            (9) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called Moses' 
        ``contribution to the freedom struggle in America'' an 
        ``inspiration''.
            (10) After Moses married Janet, they started a family in 
        Tanzania. He spent nearly a decade there teaching mathematics 
        and working with the Ministry of Education.
            (11) Moses returned to the United States in 1976, and 
        continued his doctoral studies in Philosophy of Mathematics at 
        Harvard. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1982, which he 
        used to promote the Algebra Project.
            (12) In founding the Algebra Project, Moses stated that K-
        12 math literacy, like voting literacy, is key to full 
        citizenship for Americans from poor and minority communities as 
        our society shifts from the Industrial Age to the Information 
        Age.
            (13) The Algebra Project is a non-profit dedicated to 
        helping students from historically marginalized communities, 
        including Black, Brown, and youth living in poverty, who often 
        hail from low-income households. Students develop math literacy 
        skills, which Bob Moses viewed as the path to permanently 
        improving their life circumstances, as well as the social and 
        economic conditions of their communities.
            (14) The Algebra Project uses mathematics literacy as an 
        organizing tool to guarantee quality public-school education 
        for all children in the United States.
            (15) The Algebra Project is one of the few mathematics 
        education initiatives to originate in the African-American 
        community.
            (16) Since its inception in 1982, the Algebra Project has 
        helped more than 40,000 students in hundreds of schools 
        nationwide.
            (17) In 1996, the Young People's Project was launched by 
        Algebra Project graduates from Cambridge, MA, and Algebra 
        Project middle school students from Jackson, Mississippi. The 
        Young People's Project recruits and trains high school and 
        college age ``Math Literacy Workers'' to facilitate enrichment 
        workshops for younger students in mathematics.
            (18) For his work, Bob Moses has been honored, including 
        with an Honorary Doctor of Science from Harvard University and 
        Ohio State University, an Honorary Doctor of Laws from 
        Princeton University, the John Dewey Prize for Progressive 
        Education, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National 
        Council of the Teachers of Mathematics, and was inducted to the 
        American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
            (19) Moses wrote about his vision for education and 
        experiences. He was co-author of Radical Equations-Civil Rights 
        from Mississippi to the Algebra Project (2001), and co-editor 
        of Quality Education as a Constitutional Right-Creating a 
        Grassroots Movement to Transform America's Schools (2010).
            (20) Moses wrote in Radical Equations that ``the most 
        urgent social issue affecting poor people and people of color, 
        is economic access. In today's world, economic access and full 
        citizenship depend crucially on math and science literacy. I 
        believe that the absence of math literacy in urban and rural 
        communities throughout this country is an issue as urgent as 
        the lack of registered Black voters in Mississippi was in 
        1961.''.
            (21) Bob Moses passed away in Hollywood, Florida, on July 
        25, 2021.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of 
Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make 
appropriate arrangements for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of 
the Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design in commemoration of 
Robert Parris Moses, in recognition of his achievements and 
contributions to American education and civil rights.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the presentation referred 
to in 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.
    (c) Authorized Recipient.--Following the award of the gold medal 
under subsection (a), in honor of Moses, the gold medal shall be given 
to Maisha Moses, Robert Parris Moses' daughter.
    (d) National Museum of African American History and Culture.--
            (1) In general.--A bronze duplicate of the gold medal 
        awarded under subsection (a) shall be given to the National 
        Museum of African American History and Culture, where it shall 
        be available for display as appropriate and made available for 
        research.
            (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
        the National Museum of African American History and Culture 
        should make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) 
        available for display elsewhere, particularly at other 
        appropriate locations associated with Robert Parris Moses.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck pursuant to section 3 under such regulations as the 
Secretary may prescribe, 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 under 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.
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