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Exhibition Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words

Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words

Congressional Gold Medal

Rosa Parks’s Congressional Gold Medal, 1999. Rosa Parks Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (075.00.00)
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Al Gore, Washington, D.C, 1999. Photograph. Visual Materials from the Rosa Parks Papers, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (076.00.00)
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Congressional Gold Medal

On June 15, 1999 President Clinton awarded Rosa Parks the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor given by the U.S. legislative branch. President Clinton said at a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol, “In so many ways, Rosa Parks brought America home to our founders’ dream.” Congresswoman Julia Carson (D-IN.), who introduced the legislation called Parks “the mother of the civil rights movement.” The audience included members of Congress and many civil rights activists.