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H.R. 360: To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley to commemorate the lives they lost 50 years ago in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where these 4 little Black girls’ ultimate sacrifice served as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.
- Introduced:
- Jan 23, 2013 (113th Congress, 2013–2015)
- Sponsor:
- Rep. Terri Sewell [D-AL7]
- Status:
- At President
The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.
- Summary
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No summaries available.
- Text
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Last updated May 14, 2013.
2 pages
- Primary Source
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View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)
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- Citation
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Library of Congress Summary
The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.
1/23/2013--Introduced.
Directs the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate to arrange for the presentation of a congressional gold medal to commemorate the lives of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley (children who lost their lives in the September 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, an incident recognized as a catalyst for the civil rights movement).
Authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to strike and sell bronze duplicates of such medals, with amounts received from the sale to be deposited in the U.S. Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
House Republican Conference Summary
The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.
This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/113/1/hr360.
Background
On Sunday, September 15, 1963, four members of a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan planted dynamite outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The bomb killed four young girls, shocking the nation and providing an important impetus to the civil rights movement.
The Congressional Gold Medal, along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, is America’s highest civilian honor. First awarded by Congress in 1776 to George Washington, the Congressional Gold Medal has been presented to notable figures that have left a lasting mark on American culture and history, including military leaders, musicians, scientists, explorers, and many others.
H.R. 360 recognizes the sacrifice and the important role the deaths of these four young girls played in galvanizing a movement for equal rights and justice under the law, and places them in the same company as other great American figures who were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, such as Rev. Billy Graham, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, and Rosa Parks.
Summary
H.R. 360 authorizes the “striking” and posthumous award of a single Congressional Gold Medal to the four young victims of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15, 1963. The award will be given to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, where it will be available for public display. The bill also authorizes the Mint to strike bronze duplicates of the medal for sale.
Cost
There is no cost estimate currently available.
House Democratic Caucus Summary
The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.
So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.
We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.
The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:
United States Code
The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)
- Title 31: MONEY AND FINANCE
- Subtitle IV: MONEY
- Chapter 51: COINS AND CURRENCY
- Subchapter III: UNITED STATES MINT
- Section 5134: Numismatic Public Enterprise Fund
- Section 5136: United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund
Other Citations
- 31 U.S.C. Chapter 51