Norton Leads House Floor Tour for Anacostia High School Students, Encourages Schools and Community Groups to Sign-Up for Tours

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) on Thursday led a special tour of the House Floor for 50 Anacostia High School students. Large groups of visitors and residents, including students, can only visit the House Floor with a Member of Congress present, making visits rare. Following a briefing about what takes place on the House Floor, especially for District of Columbia bills, the students visited the Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. statues in Statuary Hall; D.C.'s Frederick Douglass statue, placed there after Congress passed Norton's bill in 2012 to allow a D.C. statue in the Capitol, the first jurisdiction not yet a state to have its own statue; the Sojourner Truth statue; and other statues. Norton then brought the group to the House Floor, where Norton spoke about her legislation that brought D.C.'s Frederick Douglass statue to the Capitol after years of rebuffs by opponents of D.C. statehood, as well as the importance of the House Floor as it relates to the city.

"The tour exposed students to the place where the business of the District occurs, often against our will," Norton said. "I encourage District residents to take advantage of this great opportunity to tour the House Floor of the people's house by contacting my district office."

Tours are now held on a regular basis for D.C. public, charter and private schools, as well as citizen groups and clubs. For more information and to sign up for a tour, call Norton's district office at (202) 408-9041.

In 2012, Norton got her bill passed that treats D.C. like the 50 states by bringing a statue of Frederick Douglass representing the District to the Capitol. D.C. is now the only jurisdiction that is not yet a state to have a statue there, along with the 50 states. House and Senate Republican and Democratic leadership sponsored the unveiling ceremony for D.C.'s Douglass statue, with Vice President Joe Biden and members of the Douglass family joining Norton and others to speak at the ceremony. Douglass was known as an abolitionist and an international human rights icon, but he also served in D.C. posts and was a champion for equal citizenship for D.C. residents.