Norton Notes February 27, 1801, the Day D.C. Became the Capital and Residents Lost Their Rights that Must be Reclaimed
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released the following statement on the anniversary of the District of Columbia becoming the nation's capital.
In 1801, 212 years ago today, the District of Columbia became the nation's capital. Thus, during our 237 years as a nation, Congress has tolerated and abetted a capital whose citizens have not been treated as citizens. For most of these 212 years, the nation's capital had no local government and therefore no local democracy, and during all of its existence there has been no voting representation for the capital's citizens in the House and no representation at all in the Senate.
D.C. Residents demonstrated in the streets in 1801 when Congress cut them off from the full rights they had enjoyed as residents of Maryland and Virginia, whose land had become the new capital. Residents have not stopped demonstrating for their full rights since. Sometimes they have made large strides, as with the passage of the 1973 Home Rule Act. At other times they came close. The 1978 D.C. Voting Rights Amendment to the Constitution passed both the House and the Senate but was not ratified by the required three-quarters of the states. Most recently, the House and the Senate approved the D.C. House Voting Rights Act, only to have it snatched from residents by an NRA amendment to wipe out all of the city's gun laws. Always, residents here found ways to seek and find progress. Last Congress it was bills requiring the DC flag to be flown in military ceremonies alongside the flags of the 50 states, placing a statue representing the District of Columbia in the Capitol, and preserving the D.C. War Memorial on the Mall against attempts to nationalize it.
We take note of this day in American history because it marks not only our beginning as the capital city, it also marks the beginning of our aspirations for full equality as American citizens. Today, as in 1801, residents will give Congress no rest until those aspirations have been met.
Published: February 27, 2013