Freedom Riders Congressional Gold Medal Act
Bill: S.3420 | Sponsor: Sen. Warnock, Raphael G. (D-GA)
Policy area: Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

Summary:
Freedom Riders Congressional Gold Medal Act
This bill provides for the presentation of a Congressional Gold Medal to the Freedom Riders, in recognition of their contribution to civil rights by fighting for equality in interstate travel.

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Freedom Riders, 
  collectively, in recognition of their unique contribution to Civil 
    Rights, which inspired a revolutionary movement for equality in 
                           interstate travel.

    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 ``Freedom Riders Congressional Gold 
Medal Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) In 1960, the Supreme Court ruled in Boynton v. Virginia 
        that segregated bus and rail stations were unconstitutional.
            (2) The rigid system of racial segregation that prevailed 
        in the United States during the 1960s did not permit a Black 
        person to sit next to a White person on any bus traveling 
        through interstate commerce and in most locations in the South. 
        Bus stations had ``Whites Only'' waiting areas and Blacks were 
        not permitted to wait in those areas despite the Supreme Court 
        making it the law of the land.
            (3) The Freedom Riders, with the intent to end segregation 
        in public transportation throughout the South, paved the way 
        for full racial integration of the United States transit 
        system. They overcame prejudice, discrimination, and violence. 
        They sparked a movement that changed our Nation.
            (4) The Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) selected 
        thirteen volunteers for nonviolent response training to join in 
        the Freedom Rides from Washington, DC, to New Orleans, LA. The 
        Freedom Riders used their strategies of nonviolence throughout 
        the South to challenge the region's Jim Crow laws directly and 
        enforce the Supreme Court decision in Boynton.
            (5) On the morning of May 4, 1961, the Freedom Riders, 
        comprised of seven Blacks and six Whites, boarded two buses, 
        with Blacks and Whites seated together. Those thirteen Freedom 
        Riders were: Genevieve Hughes Houghton, Charles Person, Hank 
        Thomas, John Lewis, Edward Blankenheim, James Farmer, Walter 
        Bergman, Frances Bergman, Joseph Perkins, Jimmy McDonald, Mae 
        Francis Moultrie, Benjamin Elton Cox, and Albert Bigelow. Most 
        segregated States considered even this level of integration a 
        crime. At various stops along the way, the Freedom Riders would 
        enter areas designated ``Whites'' and ``Colored'' and would eat 
        together at segregated lunch counters to defy local laws.
            (6) Initially, the Freedom Riders had encountered only 
        minor clashes until a stop in South Carolina. In Rock Hill, an 
        angry mob severely beat John Lewis, late Congressman from the 
        5th District of Georgia, when he entered the bus station. Henry 
        ``Hank'' Thomas was jailed when he entered the bus station in 
        Winnsboro. Authorities delivered him to a waiting mob long 
        after the station had closed that evening. A local Black 
        minister rescued Thomas, enabling him to rejoin the group in 
        Columbia. However, Lewis was so badly beaten he could not 
        continue the Freedom Rides.
            (7) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights 
        leaders met with the group in Atlanta to dissuade their 
        continuance through the Deep South due to death threats. 
        Despite these warnings, more Freedom Riders joined in Atlanta. 
        Dedicated to their mission to end segregation in the South and 
        trained in nonviolent movements, the Freedom Riders continued 
        on their journey.
            (8) On Mother's Day, May 14, 1961, the Freedom Riders were 
        on two different buses. An angry mob in Anniston, Alabama, 
        firebombed the first bus. When the Freedom Riders rushed out, 
        still choking from the thick smoke of the burning bus, the 
        waiting angry mob beat them with lead pipes and baseball bats 
        as the bus exploded. Ambulances refused to transport the Black 
        Freedom Riders to the hospital. The mob beat the Freedom Riders 
        on the second bus and forced them to sit in the back. As they 
        journeyed to Birmingham, another mob savagely beat the Freedom 
        Riders.
            (9) The Nashville (TN) Student Group, a local group of 
        students who had been successful in desegregating the lunch 
        counters and movie theaters in Nashville (TN), vowed not to let 
        these acts of violence curtail the goal of the Freedom Rides. 
        They sent their members to continue the Freedom Rides and 
        called out to other student groups to do the same.
            (10) As the violence grew, the Attorney General of the 
        United States called in the National Guard and the U.S. 
        Marshals to protect the Freedom Riders as they journeyed 
        through Alabama. This protection was short-lived. The Federal 
        authorities turned the Freedom Riders over to the local 
        authorities in Mississippi who then arrested the Freedom Riders 
        for disturbing the peace.
            (11) The government of Mississippi imprisoned many of the 
        Freedom Riders in Parchman Prison known for its horrific 
        conditions, such as subjecting the Freedom Riders to strip 
        searches, work on chain gangs, and light shining in their cells 
        24 hours a day. Despite these conditions, the Freedom Riders 
        refused bail because they were determined to spread the message 
        of their nonviolent movement.
            (12) Five months after the first Freedom Riders left on 
        their historic ride, the Interstate Commerce Commission in 
        conjunction with the U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy 
        issued a Federal order banning segregation at all interstate 
        public facilities based upon ``race, color or creed''. The law 
        became effective on November 1, 1961.
            (13) In 2011, Barack Obama, the President of the United 
        States paid tribute to the Freedom Riders with a Presidential 
        proclamation honoring the 50th anniversary of the first Freedom 
        Ride by brave Americans whose selfless act of courage helped 
        pave the way for others to continue on the road to Civil Rights 
        in America.

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 presentation, on behalf of Congress, 
of a gold medal of appropriate design to the Freedom Riders, 
collectively, in recognition of their unique contribution to Civil 
Rights, which inspired a revolutionary movement to equality in 
interstate travel.
    (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 ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with 
suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the 
Secretary.
    (c) Smithsonian Institution.--
            (1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal 
        under subsection (a), the gold medal shall be given to the 
        Smithsonian Institution, where the medal shall be available for 
        display as appropriate and available for research.
            (2) Sense of the congress.--It is the sense of Congress 
        that the Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal 
        received under paragraph (1) available for display elsewhere, 
        particularly at appropriate locations associated with the 
        Freedom Riders.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck pursuant to section 2 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 pursuant to 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.

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 necessary to pay for the costs of the medals struck 
pursuant to this Act.
    (b) Proceeds of Sale.--The amounts received from the sale of 
duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 4 shall be deposited 
into the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
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