Iconic Coins from Black History

For years, the U.S. Mint has created commemoratives for prominent Americans and events. In honor of Black History Month, here are several examples of U.S. Mint coins and medals struck to commemorate noteworthy people and moments in black history.

Jackie Robinson Silver Dollar

On April 15, 1947, baseball legend Jackie Robinson made his official Major League Baseball (MLB) debut as a first baseman with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson was the first player to cross the color line, which signaled the end of segregation in the sport.

After playing baseball during high school and college, Robinson joined the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in 1945. Two years later, he was called up to play with the Dodgers. In his first season, he earned the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award. Robinson retired from the sport in 1957 following his trade to the New York Giants. His athletic achievements include six All-Star awards (1949-54) and being named the National League MVP (1949). In 1962 Robinson was also inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He died on October 24, 1972, from a heart attack.

In 1997 the U.S. Mint issued a silver-dollar commemorative to honor the 50th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. The obverse, crafted by U.S. Mint Designer Al Maletsky, depicts Robinson stealing home plate in the Dodgers’ winning 1955 World Series game against the New York Yankees. The Jackie Robinson Foundation’s logo is shown on the reverse, encircled by inscriptions for the country, denomination, and Robinson’s accolades.

Desegregating Schools Congressional Gold Medal

On May 31, 1955, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order to fully desegregate all public schools. The order came one year after the Supreme Court’s unanimous Brown v. Board of Education decision ended racial segregation in schools. The landmark case made the practice of “separate but equal” institutions of learning illegal and paved the way for full integration in American society.

The case initially began in 1951 when the Topeka Board of Education in Kansas did not allow the daughter of Oliver Brown, a local black resident, to enroll in the school closest to the family on the basis of race. The Browns, along with 12 other black families in the area, filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. federal court system. The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ruled against the Browns, but the Browns appealed the case to the Supreme Court and won. However, the court’s decision did not enumerate any specific method for ending segregation in schools. The court then considered arguments by schools requesting relief from desegregation. The subsequent decision made on May 31, 1955, known as “Brown II,” delegated school desegregation to district courts, with the order that it occur “with all deliberate speed.”

A Congressional Gold Medal was awarded in 2003 on behalf of Reverend Joseph A. DeLaine, Harry and Eliza Briggs, and Levi Pearson in recognition of their efforts to desegregate public schools. The obverse features the portraits of the awardees with the inscriptions BRIGGS V. ELLIOTT, OUR TRUST IS IN GOD, and BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION. The reverse depicts Justice as well as a quote from Judge J. Waties Waring.

Martin Luther King Jr. Congressional Gold Medal

On March 25, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. led thousands of nonviolent protesters to the Alabama capitol building in Montgomery. The march began 54 miles away in Selma and lasted for five days.

Prior to the march, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had been campaigning for voting rights for black citizens in Selma. On January 2, 1965, King and the SCLC joined with SNCC, the Dallas County Voters League, and local activists in a campaign to protest resistance to black voter registration. The first month of the campaign resulted in mass arrests but little violence; however, on February 18, Alabama state police joined with local law enforcement to break up a protest in Marion, and a 24-year-old deacon named Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot and killed.

In response, on March 7, hundreds of protesters began marching to the state capitol but were blocked by state troopers and police, who violently broke up the protest with tear gas and clubs. King attempted to lead another march to the capitol on March 19 but was blocked again. President Lyndon B. Johnson then voiced his support of King and the protesters, and King successfully led a federally sanctioned protest on March 21. The march began with 2,000 people, but the group grew and arrived at the capitol four days later with 50,000 supporters.

The U.S. Mint produced a bronze copy of the Congressional Gold Medal that was posthumously awarded to Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King for their civil rights accomplishments.

Civil Rights Act Silver Dollar

On June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation from the Oval Office in response to Alabama Governor George Wallace’s attempt to block two African American students from entering the University of Alabama.

In his speech, Kennedy announced he would enact legislation that would end segregation and racial inequalities in the United States. Eight days later, he introduced a comprehensive bill called the Civil Rights Act of 1963 to Congress. Due to considerable opposition in the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Civil Rights Act wasn’t passed until September 1964, nearly a year after Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963. The act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

To honor this significant law, the U.S. Mint issued a commemorative silver dollar in 2014. The coin’s obverse depicts three people holding hands, with a man in the group holding a sign that reads WE SHALL OVERCOME. The inscriptions LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST frame the scene. The reverse shows a torch with three flames intertwined to symbolize the freedom of education, the freedom to vote, and the freedom to control one’s destiny, along with the date the Civil Rights Act became law. The inscription surrounding the central design reads CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.