Washingtonians have many reasons to be mad as hell about their lack of autonomy—former President Donald Trump’s ability to deploy the city’s own National Guard to suppress a crowd of peaceful protesters, over the objections of Mayor Muriel Bowser, is one that immediately comes to mind. But the fight for self-determination is not just motivated by the events of the past year, when the threat of Trump taking control of the D.C. police sometimes felt imminent.
D.C. residents have been denied equal political and economic rights from the very beginning. Unlike people living in 50 states, the more than 712,000 people living in D.C. do not have full voting representation in Congress, even though Congress directly oversees the District’s local affairs. Congress can supersede the authority of the mayor and the D.C. Council, lawmakers that only D.C. residents elect. The consequences of this setup are both obvious and insidious.
“There are two roads to equality, and we need to pursue them both at the same time,” says Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. “The way we deserve it is in one fell swoop with statehood. But in the meantime we are pursuing what amounts to the failure to give us full home rule [in 1973].”
With help from Norton’s office, DC Vote, Neighbors United for DC Statehood, 51 for 51, the D.C. Council, the Office of the Attorney General, and Shadow Sen. Michael D. Brown, City Paper has compiled 51 reasons for making D.C. the 51st state as soon as possible.