Barrier-Breaking Cyclist Marshall 'Major' Taylor to Receive Posthumous Congressional Gold Medal, Bronze Duplicates to Fund Production

This legislation, officially named the Marshall ‘Major’ Taylor Congressional Gold Medal Act, is a straightforward bill focused on historical recognition. It directs Congress to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal—one of the nation’s highest civilian honors—to Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor, the pioneering African American cyclist who broke racial barriers in professional sports at the turn of the 20th century.

Taylor’s life story, detailed extensively in the bill’s findings, is one of incredible achievement against intense prejudice. He set multiple world speed records in the late 1890s and became the second Black athlete to win a world title in any sport in 1899. The bill recognizes him not just as an athlete, but as a role model and an advocate for equal rights who constantly faced discrimination, track exclusion, and even physical violence from competitors, yet still managed to become one of the wealthiest Black men in America at the time through his cycling career.

The Medal and the Hand-Off

Section 3 of the Act mandates that the Secretary of the Treasury strike a gold medal featuring an appropriate design, symbols, and writing, which absolutely must include Taylor’s image and name. Once the formal presentation ceremony is handled by the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate, the gold medal will be presented directly to Taylor’s great-granddaughter, Karen Donovan. This step ensures that the honor passes immediately to his family, rather than being placed directly into a museum collection.

Paying for the Honor

One detail that often gets overlooked in commemorative bills is how the government pays for the production. The bill handles this administrative detail cleanly in Sections 4 and 6. It gives the Treasury the authority to strike and sell duplicate copies of the medal made of bronze. The price of these bronze duplicates must be set high enough to cover all manufacturing costs, including materials, labor, and overhead. All money generated from selling these collectible bronze medals goes directly back into the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund, which is the fund used to pay for the initial production of the gold medal. Essentially, the public sale of the bronze copies covers the cost of the entire project, making it self-funding.

What This Means

This bill is purely commemorative and administrative, meaning it won't impact your taxes, your commute, or your job. What it does do is provide significant, long-overdue national recognition for a historical figure whose story of perseverance against systemic racism is incredibly important. For those interested in American history, civil rights, or numismatics (coin collecting), the bill ensures that Taylor’s legacy is officially cemented with a Congressional Gold Medal, and it creates a new, officially designated “numismatic item” (Section 5) that the public can purchase as a collectible piece of history.