Norton Makes Case on House Floor for Statehood and Full Voting Rights for D.C. Residents Ahead of D.C. Emancipation Day

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today took to the House floor to tell her colleagues that Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia on Saturday, April 16 is about emancipating the nation’s capital from autocratic congressional control by making D.C. the 51^st state of the Union. In her speech, Norton used three posters to show that the District fully qualifies for statehood. She put up a population graph to show that two states, Wyoming and Vermont, have fewer residents than the District, yet both have one voting Member in the House and two senators. Norton used a second poster on D.C.’s war casualties in major 20^th century wars to show that the District had earned statehood through the sacrifices of its residents, which outpaced several states. In World War I, D.C. had more casualties than three states (635), in World War II, more than four states (3,575), in the Korean War, more than eight states (547), and in the Vietnam War, more than 10 states (243). Norton’s third poster showed that District residents pay more in federal taxes per capita—$12,000—than residents of any state in the nation. She also cited a 2014 United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee report that found that the United States is denying equal rights to D.C. residents in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights treaty, which the U.S. ratified in 1992.

“Emancipation Day recalls the occasion in 1862 when the slaves in the District of Columbia were first to be freed, nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation,” Norton said. “Yet, today, 154 years later, the residents of the nation’s capital are the only Americans who are not free and equal. Ironically, D.C. Emancipation Day is giving the American people three extra days to file their taxes because this year’s Tax Day, April 15, falls on the day when D.C. residents are observing Emancipation Day. All that residents get in return is paying the highest taxes per capita in the nation—without representation. D.C. Emancipation Day is one more occasion for District residents to demand their full rights as American citizens.”