[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1355 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1355
To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Simeon Booker in
recognition of his achievements in the field of journalism, including
his reporting during the Civil Rights movement and his social and
political commentary.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 25, 2019
Mr. Ryan (for himself, Mr. Joyce of Ohio, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Lowenthal,
Mr. Hastings, Mr. Johnson of Ohio, Mr. Pascrell, Mrs. Beatty, Ms.
Moore, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Lawson of Florida, Ms. Norton, Ms. Johnson of
Texas, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Mr.
Krishnamoorthi, Mr. Raskin, Mr. Meeks, Ms. Fudge, Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms.
Schakowsky, Ms. Sewell of Alabama, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Cohen, Mr.
Smith of Washington, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, and Mr. Rush)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on House
Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
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A BILL
To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Simeon Booker in
recognition of his achievements in the field of journalism, including
his reporting during the Civil Rights movement and his social and
political commentary.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr., was born on August 27,
1918, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Reberta Waring and Simeon
Saunders Booker, Sr., a YMCA director and minister.
(2) After his family moved to Youngstown, Ohio, Booker
became interested in journalism.
(3) Booker promoted and wrote about Negro League baseball
teams in Youngstown's local newspaper, The Vindicator.
(4) In 1945, he moved back to Ohio to work for the Call and
Post, where he became the first African-American reporter to
win a Newspaper Guild Award for his series on Cleveland, Ohio,
slum housing, and a Willkie Award for reporting on racial
inequities in the public schools.
(5) In 1950, Booker was the recipient of the Nieman
Fellowship from Harvard University to study journalism and
develop his talent as a reporter.
(6) After leaving Harvard in 1951, Booker became the first
full-time African-American reporter at The Washington Post.
(7) In 1955, he helped to advance the civil rights movement
with his famous coverage of the Emmett Till murder and trial,
turning a common occurrence in the Deep South into a national
tragedy that united the Black community.
(8) He remained at the forefront of the civil rights
movement, reporting on the 1957 integration of Central High
School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
(9) In 1961, he rode with the Congress on Racial Equality
(CORE) Freedom Riders through the Deep South.
(10) When the Freedom Riders were firebombed and beaten in
Anniston, Alabama, in a Ku Klux Klan ambush, Booker arranged
for their rescue by calling U.S. Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy.
(11) In two wartime tours of Vietnam in the 1960s, he
interviewed Black troops on the front lines, and took enemy
fire in a helicopter with United States Army General William
Westmoreland for reports for Jet and Ebony magazines.
(12) He has chronicled the most tumultuous period in
American history in two highly acclaimed books, Shocking the
Conscience: A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement
(University Press of Mississippi, 2013), and Black Man's
America (Prentice Hall, 1964).
(13) Often called the ``dean of the black press'', as chief
of Ebony and Jet magazines' Washington bureau, he interviewed
presidents, senators and representatives, members of the
judiciary, cabinet officers, foreign ambassadors, and other
important members of the Washington community. His column,
``Ticker Tape U.S.A.'' became a must-read for politicians and
government officials.
(14) He covered every Presidential election since the
Eisenhower Administration in his fifty-three years with Johnson
Publishing until he retired in 2007.
(15) In 1982, Booker received one of the most prestigious
awards in journalism, the National Press Club's Fourth Estate
Award.
(16) His honors and awards include: Nieman Fellowship,
Harvard University 1950; elected president of the Capitol Press
Club, 1956; Fourth Estate Award, National Press Club, 1982;
inducted into Hall of Fame, Washington Chapter of Sigma Delta
Chi, and Hall of Fame of Washington, DC, 1984; Master
Communicators Award, National Black Media Coalition, 1998;
Phoenix Award, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, 2010;
inducted into Hall of Fame, National Association of Black
Journalists, 2013.
SEC. 2. 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 posthumous presentation, on behalf of
the Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design, in commemoration
of Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr., in recognition of his achievements in
the field of journalism, including his reporting during the Civil
Rights movement and his social and political commentary.
(b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the presentation referred
to in 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.
(c) Smithsonian Institution.--
(1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal in
honor of Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr., under subsection (a), the
gold medal shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where
it shall be available for display as appropriate and made
available for research.
(2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the Smithsonian Institution shall make the gold medal received
under paragraph (1) available for display elsewhere,
particularly at other appropriate locations associated with the
life of Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr.
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, 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.
SEC. 4. 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 sections 5134 and 5136 of
title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be
considered to be numismatic items.
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