What's Connection between D.C. Statehood and Black Lives Matter? - Indivisible

“Why is D.C. statehood a response at all to nationwide Black Lives Matter protests? To answer that question, you’ve got to ask another: why does a geographic area in America with more residents than two states, and that pays more federal taxes than 22 states, lack any voting representation in Congress?”

INDEPENDENCE DAY FOR THE NATION’S CAPITAL

D.C. held its first convention to draft a state constitution in preparation for admission as a state nearly forty years ago. It took another decade, but the House of Representatives finally held a vote on D.C. statehood in 1993. The proposal went down in flames -- Democrats and Republicans alike voted against it. Undeterred, advocates including Eleanor Holmes Norton -- D.C.’s nonvoting member of Congress -- have introduced a D.C. statehood bill in every single Congress since then. But the legislation never got enough support to get a vote in the House.

Times change -- or rather, times are changed. Prompted by the historic, inspiring, powerful nationwide Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd -- and Trump’s appalling use of the military to occupy Washington D.C. in response -- Democratic leaders in the House moved forward on the D.C. statehood bill. Last week, for the first time in history, the House passed a bill that would make Washington, D.C. the 51st state in the union. The new state would be admitted as the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth -- named after famed abolitionist and civil rights leader Frederick Douglass. 

Read more in Leah & Ezra’s Monthly Indivisible Newsletter HERE