[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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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.