Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the late trailblazing politician, has been awarded Congress’ highest honor.
On Thursday (Dec 12), President Joe Biden signed the Shirley Chisholm Congressional Gold Medal Act, posthumously honoring Chisholm, who died in 2005, with Congress’s highest award for her distinguished service and achievements.
The official website defines the Congressional Gold Medal as Congress’s highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals, institutions, or groups. It can be awarded to anyone Congress deems worthy. Sometimes this includes groups of veterans, such as the Tuskegee Airmen or the Dustoff Crews during the Vietnam War.
As NBC News reports, days prior to the signing, VP Kamala Harris signed the award in her role as president of the U.S. Senate with the bill’s two lead sponsors, Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.
“It was an honor to stand next to Vice President Kamala Harris as she signed this historic bill,” Lee said in a statement. Chisholm became a mentor to Lee as a college student and as Lee built her own career in public service.
VP Harris signing the Shirley Chisholm Congressional Gold Medal Act is meaningful, as it arrives fifty-two years later, on the 100th anniversary of Chisholm’s birth.
The gold medal will be curated under the U.S. Treasury Department. The original medal will be minted with Chisholm’s image, name, and “suitable” emblems and inscriptions, according to NBC News.
Last month, Chisholm received her own day, Nov. 30 is in New York City. In Brooklyn, her life and legacy is commemorated in the “Changing the Face of Democracy: Shirley Chisholm at 100” exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.
Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress in 1968 and the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination. Throughout her political career, Chisholm championed racial and gender equality, early education, and child welfare.
She retired from Congress in 1983 and went on to teach at Mount Holyoke College, where she co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women.