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Congressional Gold Medal.com |
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Female Congressional Gold Medal Winners Their Work Helped America Published February 15, 2006 by
Abe
National archives © National Archives
Did you know?A proposed award awaiting approval would honor Martin Luther King and Corretta Scott King together.
TakeawaysThree first ladies have been given Congressional Gold Medals.Marian Anderson was the first African-American woman awarded.Several women were awarded as civil rights activists, including Rosa Parks and Eliza Briggs.Congressional Gold Medal winners are individuals, male or female, whose conduct, achievement, or courageous participation in an important event has served the country and earned them the highest respect of the U.S. Congress. Congressional Gold Medal winners are from many walks of life - soldiers, statesmen, entertainers, activists, males, females, sometimes married couples winning together. What follows is a partial list of female Congressional Gold Medal winners.
Anna Bougliny & Margaret Aldrich (1938)
These two women were each awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. They are the first two females awarded. Congress gave them each medals for their work helping to establish medical care facilities in Puerto Rico during the Spanish American War. Bougliny received the award posthumously.
Marian Anderson (1977)
Anderson, the famed opera singer, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for her “impressive” career and her “strong and imaginative support to humanitarian causes at home”. She is the first African American female to be awarded the medal.
Queen Beatrix I of the Netherlands (1982)
An example of a foreign medal winner, The Queen was given the medal for to mark the bicentennial of good relations between the USA and The Netherlands.
First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson (1984)
Lyndon Johnson’s widow, Lady Bird, was awarded the medal for among other things her “exceptional abilities in the fields of government, business, and social justice.” She received the award the same year Margaret Truman Daniel accepted an award for her father Harry Truman.
Mary Lasker (1989)
Mrs. Lasker was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for her contributions to medical research through philanthropy. Her fundraising efforts, with her husband, contributed to great strides in various medical advancements.
Ruth Graham (with her husband, Rev. Billy Graham) (1996)
Mrs. Graham became an Congressional Gold Medal winner alongside her husband for her ongoing contributions to aspects of American life as social justice and, of course, religion. They are the first male-female married award winners.
Mother Theresa (1997)
One of the most famous women in the world, Mother Theresa was award for her lifetime of work with the abjectly poor. She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom years before.
Women & Men of the Little Rock Nine (1998)
The female members of this group honored for their participation, as youths, in de-segregating Arkansas schools were Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Echford, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo Beals, Gloria Ray and Carlotta Walls
Betty Ford (with Husband, President Gerald Ford) (1998)
Mrs. Ford and President Ford were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal for their service to the country and humanitarian efforts.
Rosa Parks (1999)
Mrs. Parks famously refused to adhere to Jim Crow law, giving herself inadvertently a place in history as she refused to give up her place on the bus. Sparking America’s civil rights movement, the late Mrs. Parks is probably most famous African American female activist of the 20th century.
Nancy Regan (with husband, President Ronald Regan) (2000)
Mrs. Regan is another woman Gold Medal winner recognized for what she contributed to the country while First Lady.
Dorothy Irene Height (2003)
Mrs. Height was awarded the Gold Medal for her major role in the civil rights movement, wherein she was an organizer of interracial dialogue, a leader of the National Council of Negro Women and a colleague of other activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr.
Eliza Briggs (with Husband, Henry Briggs) (2004)
Mrs. Briggs was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal with her husband for the role they played in the Brown vs. Board of Education case which made segregated schools illegal. She was awarded posthumously. The female winners of the Congressional Gold Medal, like their male counterparts, have all contributed their skills, talents and personal efforts in ways which have benefitted the development of the United States of America. |
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