Fifty years after their instrumental role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King were posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor, on Tuesday.

The presentation of the medal for the Kings -- considered the foremost leaders of the 1960s Civil Rights movement that won black Americans equal voting rights and fought to free them from institutional segregation in the Jim Crow South - comes a year after Congress gave the honor to the "Four Little Girls" killed in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, a pivotal moment in the movement.

"We gather here in the Capitol to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his beloved wife, Coretta Scott King, one of the most distinguished and admired husband and wife teams of the 21st century," said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), himself a leader in the Civil Rights movement. "Often history remembers speeches of facts and figures, but I cannot forget their love. From their union came an enduring strength that carried many of us through the darkest days of the movement."

Other Civil Rights-era figures who have been honored with the Congressional Gold Medal include Rosa Parks (1999), who became the face of the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott when she refused to leave her seat and move to the back of the bus, a section reserved for blacks, and Dorothy Height (2004), one of the most prominent women of the movement, who organized "Wednesdays in Mississippi," a dialogue series in which northern women traveled to southern cities to work to foster harmony during the contentious civil rights years.

The Kings were initially awarded the medal in 2004, but Coretta Scott King passed away before she could receive the medal. Congress then needed to re-pass legislation so that the physical medal could be given to the Smithsonian.

To read the complete Washington Post article, see:Congressional Gold Medal awarded to the Rev. Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King(www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/06/24/
congressional-gold-medal-awarded-to-the-rev-martin-luther
-and-coretta-scott-king/)

During a ceremony held yesterday at the Capitol Rotunda, the Congressional Gold Medal was posthumously awarded to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. The medal was accepted by Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The obverse design of the medal features portraits of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King. Their names appear inscribed above, along with "Act of Congress 2004″. A banner at the base carries the inscription "For Their Service to Humanity".

The reverse design features the image of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Below the image is a quote from Dr. King reflecting his beliefs of nonviolent social change. The lower half of the medal is encircled by a laurel wreath. The quote reads: "I suggest that the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence become immediately a subject for study for serious experimentation in every field of human conflict, by no means excluding the relations between nations. This may well be mankind's last chance to choose between chaos and community."

The United States Mint is offering bronze reproductions of the Congressional Gold Medal. The 3-inch bronze medal is priced at $39.95 and the 1.5-inch bronze medal is priced at $6.95. The bronze medals went on sale today, June 25, 2014.

To read the complete article on the Mint News Blog, see:Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King Bronze Medal(mintnewsblog.com/2014/06/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-and-coretta-scott-king-bronze-medal/)