Sarah Keys Evans Congressional Gold Medal Act
Bill: H.R.5922 | Sponsor: Rep. Butterfield, G. K. (D-NC)
Policy area: Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

Summary:
Sarah Keys Evans Congressional Gold Medal Act
This bill provides for the award of a Congressional Gold Medal to Sarah Keys Evans in recognition of her achievements relating to the desegregation of passengers on interstate buses in the 1950s.

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Sarah Keys Evans, and for other 
                               purposes.

    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 ``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.
            (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 military. 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 bus. Tired 
        from her long journey and understanding her rights, Sarah 
        refused.
            (6) Six years prior, in 1946, there was a Supreme 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 moving to a different 
        bus, but ``that woman'' who refused 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 arrived at the 
        bus terminal, took Sarah by the arms into a patrol car and 
        drove her to the Roanoke Rapids police station. Because she 
        refused to be subjected to unjust discrimination and prejudice, 
        she was forced to stay in jail overnight and was fined $25.00 
        (would be $240.00 today) before her release.
            (9) Once Sarah arrived home and informed her family of the 
        injustice she endured, her father encouraged her to seek legal 
        action.
            (10) The National Association for the Advancement of 
        Colored People (NAACP) referred the family 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 decided 
        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 decision. 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 decided that it 
        was wrong for people on State-to-State trips to be forced to 
        sit in certain seats on a bus because 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.
            (14) In Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, the ICC ruled 
        in favor of Keys Evans. In their decision, the Commission found 
        the Interstate Commerce Act forbids segregation as the practice 
        subjects passengers to ``unjust discrimination, and undue and 
        unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage, in violation of 
        section 216(d) of the Interstate Commerce Act and is therefore 
        unlawful''.

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 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 regulations as the 
Secretary may prescribe, the Secretary may strike duplicates in bronze 
of the gold medal struck under section 3.
    (b) Selling of Duplicates.--The Secretary may sell such duplicates 
under subsection (a) at a price sufficient 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.
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