“It is the highest honor that we can bestow on a citizen from the U.S. Congress,” said CBC Chairman Steven Horsford, D-Nev.
Congressional Black Caucus members on Capitol Hill have nominated Henrietta Lacks for a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal for her contributions to modern medicine.
“This is to commemorate and to recognize the immortal life of Henrietta Lacks,” said U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md.
“The Congressional Gold Medal is more than a symbol. It is the highest honor that we can bestow on a citizen from the U.S. Congress,” said CBC Chairman Steven Horsford, D-Nev.
“[It] has only been awarded to a few people in our nation’s history and even fewer Black people,” he explained, adding, “The CBC believes Ms. Lacks deserves this posthumous honor.”
On Wednesday, Mfume, Horsford, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump held a press conference at the U.S. Capitol to recognize the life and legacy of Lacks.
Ahead of taking to the House floor to reintroduce legislation that would award Lacks with a Congressional Gold Medal, Mfume delivered a message to other members of Congress.
“I would urge all of my colleagues in the House and the Senate to move forward with” the passage of this statute, he told reporters.
Source: CBC introduces law to posthumously award Henrietta Lacks with Congressional Gold Medal
