What This Bill Does
This bill authorizes Congress to award a Congressional Gold Medal to African Americans who served with Union forces during the Civil War. The medal recognizes their bravery and outstanding service. After being awarded, the gold medal goes to the Smithsonian Institution for display and research.
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Who It Affects
This bill affects:
• African Americans who served with Union forces during the Civil War (the honorees)
• The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate (who arrange the presentation)
• The Secretary of the Treasury (who designs and creates the medal)
• The Smithsonian Institution (which receives and displays the medal)
• The United States Mint (which covers costs)
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Key Provisions
• Congress authorizes the posthumous presentation of a gold medal to African Americans who collectively served with Union forces during the Civil War, in recognition of their bravery and outstanding service (Sec. 3(a))
• The Secretary of the Treasury must design and create a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices and inscriptions (Sec. 3(b))
• After presentation, the gold medal goes to the Smithsonian Institution for display and research (Sec. 3(c))
• Congress expresses that the Smithsonian Institution should display the gold medal at locations associated with the United States Colored Troops (Sec. 3(c)(2))
• The Secretary may create and sell bronze duplicate medals to cover the costs of making them, including labor, materials and overhead expenses (Sec. 4)
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What Changes
If this bill becomes law, a Congressional Gold Medal will be awarded collectively to African Americans who served with Union forces during the Civil War. This medal will then be given to the Smithsonian Institution for public display and research. Bronze duplicate medals may also be made and sold.
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Important Definitions
• United States Colored Troops (USCT): Regiments of the Union Army made up of African-American men, officially established on May 22, 1863
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Effective Date
Not specified in bill text
II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
S. 273
To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the Afri-
can Americans who served with Union forces during the Civil War,
in recognition of their bravery and outstanding service.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY 7, 2023
Mr. BOOKER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
A BILL
To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal, collec-
tively, to the African Americans who served with Union
forces during the Civil War, in recognition of their brav-
ery and outstanding service.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘United States Colored
4
Troops Congressional Gold Medal Act’’.
5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
6
Congress finds the following:
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(1) Since the Colonial Era, African Americans
1
have served the United States in times of war.
2
(2) During the Civil War, approximately
3
200,000 African-American men served in the Union
4
Army and 19,000 African-American men served in
5
the Union Navy.
6
(3) During the Civil War, African-American
7
women were not allowed to formally enlist as soldiers
8
or sailors, though they served as nurses, cooks,
9
spies, and scouts for the Union Army and the Union
10
Navy.
11
(4) While African-American men served in the
12
Navy since its establishment, there was resistance to
13
enlisting them to take up arms for the Union Army
14
at the start of the Civil War.
15
(5) As the Civil War dragged on, President
16
Lincoln broke from the previous policy of his admin-
17
istration and determined that liberating enslaved
18
persons ‘‘was a military necessity absolutely essen-
19
tial for the salvation of the Union’’.
20
(6) The Act entitled ‘‘An Act to suppress insur-
21
rection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and
22
confiscate the property of rebels, and for other pur-
23
poses’’, approved July 17, 1862 (commonly known
24
as the ‘‘Second Confiscation Act’’) (12 Stat. 589;
25
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•S 273 IS
chapter 195), and the Act of July 17, 1862 (com-
1
monly known as the ‘‘Military Act of 1862’’) (12
2
Stat. 597; chapter 201), were the first official au-
3
thorizations to employ African Americans in the
4
Union Army.
5
(7) It was not until January 1, 1863, the effec-
6
tive date of the Emancipation Proclamation issued
7
by President Lincoln, that the Union Army was or-
8
dered to receive African-American men.
9
(8) On May 22, 1863, the United States War
10
Department issued General Order Number 143,
11
which established the Bureau of Colored Troops for
12
the recruitment and organization of regiments of the
13
Union Army composed of African-American men,
14
called the United States Colored Troops (referred to
15
in this section as ‘‘USCT’’).
16
(9) Leaders such as Frederick Douglass encour-
17
aged African Americans to enlist to advance the
18
cause of citizenship. ‘‘Once let the black man get
19
upon his person the brass letters, ‘U.S.’, let him get
20
an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoul-
21
der and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on
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[E]arth that can deny that he has earned the right
23
to citizenship.’’, wrote Douglass.
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(10) African-American sailors constituted a sig-
1
nificant segment of the Union Navy, making up 20
2
percent of the total enlisted force of the Navy.
3
(11) Although there were rank restrictions on
4
African Americans in the Navy before the Civil War,
5
this policy changed after the establishment of the
6
USCT, when the Union Navy started to compete
7
with the Union Army for enlistment of African
8
Americans.
9
(12) Yet, in practice, most African Americans
10
could not advance beyond lowest ranks of ‘‘boy’’ and
11
‘‘landsman’’.
12
(13) African-American soldiers and sailors
13
served with distinction, honor, and bravery amid ra-
14
cial discrimination and adverse circumstances, in-
15
cluding the risk of enslavement and torture if cap-
16
tured.
17
(14) Eighteen members of the USCT and 8 Af-
18
rican-American sailors were awarded the Medal of
19
Honor, the highest honor in the United States for
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bravery in combat.
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(15) For generations after the Civil War, the
22
contributions of African Americans in the Civil War
23
were excluded from historical memory.
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(16) Public Law No. 102–412 (106 Stat. 2104)
1
authorized the establishment of a memorial on Fed-
2
eral land in the District of Columbia to honor Afri-
3
can Americans who served with Union forces during
4
the Civil War.
5
(17) This memorial, featuring a bronze statue
6
of USCT soldiers, an African-American sailor and
7
family, is surrounded by the Wall of Honor, which
8
lists the names of the members of the USCT.
9
(18) The African American Civil War Museum
10
is located in the District of Columbia.
11
(19) Patriots and heroes who rose in service to
12
a Nation that would not fully recognize them, the
13
African Americans who served the Union during the
14
Civil War deserve our recognition for their contribu-
15
tions to the grant of emancipation and citizenship
16
for nearly 4,000,000 enslaved people and the preser-
17
vation of the Union.
18
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
19
(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of
20
the House of Representatives and the President pro tem-
21
pore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Rep-
22
resentatives shall make appropriate arrangements for the
23
posthumous presentation, on behalf of Congress, of a gold
24
medal of appropriate design to the African Americans who
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•S 273 IS
served with Union forces during the Civil War, collectively,
1
in recognition of their bravery and outstanding service
2
during the Civil War.
3
(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purposes of the
4
presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary
5
of the Treasury (hereafter in this Act referred to as the
6
‘‘Secretary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable em-
7
blems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the
8
Secretary.
9
(c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.—
10
(1) IN GENERAL.—Following the award of the
11
gold medal under subsection (a), the gold medal
12
shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where
13
the medal shall be available for display as appro-
14
priate and made available for research.
15
(2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of
16
Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should
17
make the gold medal received under paragraph (1)
18
available for display elsewhere, particularly at appro-
19
priate locations associated with the United States
20
Colored Troops.
21
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
22
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in
23
bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3 at
24
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•S 273 IS
a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor,
1
materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses.
2
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.
3
(a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck pursu-
4
ant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter
5
51 of title 31, United States Code.
6
(b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section
7
5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck
8
under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items.
9
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF
10
SALE.
11
(a) AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS.—There is
12
authorized to be charged against the United States Mint
13
Public Enterprise Fund such amounts as may be nec-
14
essary to pay for the costs of the medals struck under
15
this Act.
16
(b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the
17
sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section
18
4 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public
19
Enterprise Fund.
20
Æ
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