[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6836 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6836
To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Robert Parris
Moses, in recognition of his achievements and contributions to
advancing American education and civil rights.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 25, 2022
Mr. Espaillat (for himself, Mr. Raskin, and Ms. Wilson of Florida)
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
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Robert Parris
Moses, in recognition of his achievements and contributions to
advancing American education and civil rights.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Robert Parris Moses Congressional
Gold Medal Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that:
(1) Robert Parris Moses was born in Harlem, New York City,
on January 23, 1935.
(2) Robert Parris Moses is regarded as an influential civil
rights activist, peace activist, public education advocate, and
math literacy educator.
(3) Moses grew up in Harlem River Houses and was one of
only a handful of Black students at the time who was admitted
to Stuyvesant High School.
(4) Moses earned a scholarship to Hamilton College in
Clinton, New York, and subsequently obtained a master's degree
in philosophy from Harvard University in 1957.
(5) His doctorate studies in mathematics were halted due to
the death of his mother and the hospitalization of his father.
(6) In 1959, Moses helped with the second Youth March for
Integrated Schools in Washington, DC.
(7) Moses visited Mississippi in the summer of 1960, and
met with local National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) leaders who indicated the need to focus
on voter registration. He returned to Mississippi after
teaching the 1960-1961 school year in New York, where he
organized and registered thousands of poor, illiterate, and
rural Black residents to vote.
(8) As a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, in 1964, Moses helped organize the Mississippi
``Freedom'' Summer Project.
(9) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called Moses'
``contribution to the freedom struggle in America'' an
``inspiration''.
(10) After Moses married Janet, they started a family in
Tanzania. He spent nearly a decade there teaching mathematics
and working with the Ministry of Education.
(11) Moses returned to the United States in 1976, and
continued his doctoral studies in Philosophy of Mathematics at
Harvard. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1982, which he
used to promote the Algebra Project.
(12) In founding the Algebra Project, Moses stated that K-
12 math literacy, like voting literacy, is key to full
citizenship for Americans from poor and minority communities as
our society shifts from the Industrial Age to the Information
Age.
(13) The Algebra Project is a non-profit dedicated to
helping students from historically marginalized communities,
including Black, Brown, and youth living in poverty, who often
hail from low-income households. Students develop math literacy
skills, which Bob Moses viewed as the path to permanently
improving their life circumstances, as well as the social and
economic conditions of their communities.
(14) The Algebra Project uses mathematics literacy as an
organizing tool to guarantee quality public-school education
for all children in the United States.
(15) The Algebra Project is one of the few mathematics
education initiatives to originate in the African-American
community.
(16) Since its inception in 1982, the Algebra Project has
helped more than 40,000 students in hundreds of schools
nationwide.
(17) In 1996, the Young People's Project was launched by
Algebra Project graduates from Cambridge, MA, and Algebra
Project middle school students from Jackson, Mississippi. The
Young People's Project recruits and trains high school and
college age ``Math Literacy Workers'' to facilitate enrichment
workshops for younger students in mathematics.
(18) For his work, Bob Moses has been honored, including
with an Honorary Doctor of Science from Harvard University and
Ohio State University, an Honorary Doctor of Laws from
Princeton University, the John Dewey Prize for Progressive
Education, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National
Council of the Teachers of Mathematics, and was inducted to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
(19) Moses wrote about his vision for education and
experiences. He was co-author of Radical Equations-Civil Rights
from Mississippi to the Algebra Project (2001), and co-editor
of Quality Education as a Constitutional Right-Creating a
Grassroots Movement to Transform America's Schools (2010).
(20) Moses wrote in Radical Equations that ``the most
urgent social issue affecting poor people and people of color,
is economic access. In today's world, economic access and full
citizenship depend crucially on math and science literacy. I
believe that the absence of math literacy in urban and rural
communities throughout this country is an issue as urgent as
the lack of registered Black voters in Mississippi was in
1961.''.
(21) Bob Moses passed away in Hollywood, Florida, on July
25, 2021.
SEC. 3. 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
Robert Parris Moses, in recognition of his achievements and
contributions to American education and civil rights.
(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) Authorized Recipient.--Following the award of the gold medal
under subsection (a), in honor of Moses, the gold medal shall be given
to Maisha Moses, Robert Parris Moses' daughter.
(d) National Museum of African American History and Culture.--
(1) In general.--A bronze duplicate of the gold medal
awarded under subsection (a) shall be given to the National
Museum of African American History and Culture, 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 National Museum of African American History and Culture
should make the gold medal received under paragraph (1)
available for display elsewhere, particularly at other
appropriate locations associated with Robert Parris Moses.
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold
medal struck pursuant to section 3 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.
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.
(a) National Medals.--The medals struck under 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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