[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 498 Referred in House (RFH)]
1st Session
S. 498
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 26, 2003
Referred to the Committee on Financial Services
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AN ACT
To authorize the President to posthumously award a gold medal on behalf
of Congress to Joseph A. De Laine, in recognition of his contributions
to the Nation.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that--
(1) the Reverend Joseph Armstrong De Laine, one of the true
heroes of the civil rights struggle, led a crusade to break
down barriers in education in South Carolina;
(2) the efforts of Reverend De Laine led to the
desegregation of public schools in the United States, but
forever scarred his own life;
(3) in 1949, Joseph De Laine, a minister and principal,
organized African-American parents in Summerton, South
Carolina, to petition the school board for a bus for black
students, who had to walk up to 10 miles through corn and
cotton fields to attend a segregated school, while the white
children in the school district rode to and from school in
nice, clean buses;
(4) in 1950, these same parents sued to end public school
segregation in Briggs v. Elliott, 1 of 5 cases that
collectively led to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision of
Brown v. Board of Education;
(5) because of his participation in the desegregation
movement, Reverend De Laine was subjected to repeated acts of
domestic terror, in which--
(A) he, along with 2 sisters and a niece, lost
their jobs;
(B) he fought off an angry mob;
(C) he received frequent death threats; and
(D) his church and his home were burned to the
ground;
(6) in October 1955, after Reverend De Laine relocated to
Florence County in South Carolina, shots were fired at the De
Laine home, and because Reverend De Laine fired back to mark
the car, he was charged with assault and battery with intent to
kill;
(7) the shooting incident drove him from South Carolina to
Buffalo, New York, where he organized an African Methodist
Episcopal Church;
(8) believing that he would not be treated fairly by the
South Carolina judicial system if he returned to South
Carolina, Reverend De Laine told the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, ``I am not running from justice but injustice'',
and it was not until 2000 (26 years after his death and 45
years after the incident) that Reverend De Laine was cleared of
all charges relating to the October 1955 incident;
(9) Reverend De Laine was a humble and fearless man who
showed the Nation that all people, regardless of the color of
their skin, deserve a first-rate education, a lesson from which
the Nation has benefited immeasurably; and
(10) Reverend De Laine deserves rightful recognition for
the suffering that he and his family endured to teach the
Nation one of the great civil rights lessons of the last
century.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Presentation Authorized.--The President is authorized, on
behalf of Congress, to award a gold medal of appropriate design to
Joseph De Laine, Jr. to honor his father, Reverend Joseph Armstrong De
Laine (posthumously), for his contributions to the Nation.
(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.
SEC. 3. 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, and at a price sufficient to cover the costs
thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and
overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal.
SEC. 4. STATUS AS NATIONAL MEDALS.
The medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for
purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
SEC. 5. FUNDING.
(a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to be
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund an amount
not to exceed $30,000 to pay for the cost of the medals authorized by
this Act.
(b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate
bronze medals under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States
Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
Passed the Senate June 25, 2003.
Attest:
EMILY J. REYNOLDS,
Secretary.