The first coining honoring an African American and designed by an African American was issued on this day, December 16th in 1946. The fifty-cent piece contained the bust of Booker T. Washington.

The Booker T. Washington Memorial half dollar was among the last commemoratives authorized by Congress in the “Classic” period. The bill was initiated by Mr. S. J. Phillips the president of the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial Commission, who asked congress to include a surcharge on the coins to fund various memorial efforts including the purchase of Dr. Washington’s Original log Cabin birthplace in rural Virginia.

The original authorization was for 5,000,000 which Mr Phillips claimed he could sell for $1.00 in “90 days or less” to the “black community”. For the first two years, mintages were huge. In fact, for the 1946 Philadelphia issue, over a million coins were struck. Unfortunately things didn’t work out quite as well as he had planned and many coins were returned to the mint and melted down.

The coin design process also generated it’s share of controversy as well. Originally Dr. Emmett Scott, Dr. Washington’s secretary commissioned Mr. Charles Keck to design the coin. While Mr. Keck was perfecting his design, Mr. Phillips was approached by Isaac Scott Hathaway a black artist who was in possession of a Life Mask of Dr. Washington. Mr. Hathaway volunteered to produce a coin design from the mask for free.
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Unbeknownced to Keck, Phillips accepted Hathaway’s offer and submitted both designs to the mint and the Federal Commission of Fine Arts. In October of 1946 the commission accepted Hathaway’s obverse (heads) design, but rejected both reverse (tails) designs. The final reverse design was based on a sketch by one of the members of the Fine Arts commission.

They were not very popular at the time of issue, probably because not to many whites americans were holding African Americans in such high esteem as the founding fathers and very few African Americans at the time were holding on to the coins for commemorative value.

But many survive today with their value ranging from $21 dollars to $600 depending on condition and year of issue.