1.Congress makes the following
findings:
(1)Elizabeth
Wanamaker, a Tlingit Indian, was born on July 4, 1911, in Petersburg,
Alaska.
(2)Elizabeth married
Roy Peratrovich, a Tlingit Indian from Klawock Alaska, on December 15,
1931.
(3)In 1941, the
couple moved to Juneau, Alaska.
(4)Roy and Elizabeth
Peratrovich discovered that they could not purchase a home in the section of
Juneau in which they desired to live due to discrimination against Alaska
Natives.
(5)In the early
1940s, there were reports that some businesses in Southeast Alaska posted signs
reading No Natives Allowed
.
(6)Roy, as Grand
President of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Elizabeth, as Grand President of
the Alaska Native Sisterhood, petitioned the Territorial Governor and the
Territorial Legislature to enact a law prohibiting discrimination against
Alaska Natives in public accommodations.
(7)Rebuffed by the
Territorial Legislature in 1943, they again sought passage of an
antidiscrimination law in 1945.
(8)On February 8,
1945, as the Alaska Territorial Senate debated the anti-discrimination law,
Elizabeth, who was sitting in the visitor’s gallery of the Senate, was
recognized to present her views on the measure.
(9)The eloquent and
dignified testimony given by Elizabeth that day is widely credited for passage
of the antidiscrimination law.
(10)On February 16,
1945, Territorial Governor Ernest Gruening signed into law an act prohibiting
discrimination against all citizens within the jurisdiction of the Territory of
Alaska in access to public accommodations and imposing a penalty on any person
who shall display any printed or written sign indicating discrimination on
racial grounds of such full and equal enjoyment.
(11)Nineteen years
before Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and 18 years before the
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his I have a
Dream
speech, one of America’s first antidiscrimination laws was
enacted in the Territory of Alaska, thanks to the efforts of Elizabeth and Roy
Peratrovich.
(12)Since 1989, the
State of Alaska has observed Elizabeth Peratrovich Day on February 16 of each
year and a visitor’s gallery of the Alaska House of Representatives in the
Alaska State Capitol has been named for Elizabeth Peratrovich.
2.
(a)The President is authorized, on behalf of the
Congress, to posthumously award a gold medal of appropriate design to Elizabeth
Wanamaker Peratrovich and Roy Peratrovich, in recognition of their outstanding
and enduring contributions to the civil rights and dignity of the Native
peoples of Alaska and the Nation.
(b)For the purpose of the presentation referred to in
subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (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.
3.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 cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of
machinery, and overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal.
4.The medals struck under
this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United
States Code.
5.
(a)Authority To
use fund amountsThere is authorized to be charged against the
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund such sum as may be appropriated to
pay for the cost of the medals authorized by this Act.
(b)Amounts received from the sale of duplicate bronze medals
under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise
Fund.