DC Democracy and Statehood Timeline

Board of Directors

Steve Shaff

Stephen Shaff is a community and political organizer, social entrepreneur, and the founder of Community-Vision Partners (C-VP), a community and social solutions Benefit LLC whose mission is to initiate, facilitate and agitate for the Common Good. A significant project of C-VP has been the establishment and development of the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Council (CSBC), a business-led educational and advocacy organization whose mission is to promote and expand sustainable business viability, awareness, and impact within the Chesapeake region (MD, DC and VA). Shaff’s background represents an unusually broad but interrelated series of accomplishments along with a multi-sector network of relationships and contacts. His areas of expertise include inner-city Washington, DC Affordable Housing & Real Estate Development; Community Development and Activism; Green & New Economy Advocacy; Civic & Political Advocacy Leadership and other national movement initiatives.

Steve Shaff

Secretary - People Demanding Action

Executive Director Community Vision Partners

Maryland

Executive Director

Alex Lawson is the executive director of Social Security Works, the convening member of the Strengthen Social Security Coalition— a coalition made up of over 300 national and state organizations representing over 50 million Americans. Lawson was the first employee of Social Security Works, when he served as the communications director, and has built the organization alongside the founding co-directors into a recognized leader on social insurance. Mr. Lawson is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Mr. Lawson is also the co-owner of We Act Radio an AM radio station and media production company whose studio is located in the historic Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, DC. We Act Radio is a mission driven business that is dedicated to raising up the stories and voices of those historically excluded from the media. We Act Radio is also an innovator in the use of online and social media as well as video livestreaming to cover breaking news and events. Most recently, producing video livestreaming from Ferguson, MO as the #FergusonLive project sponsored by Color of Change.

Alex Lawson

Treasurer - People Demanding Action

Social Security Works

Washington, DC

Rev. Rodney Sadler

Dr. Sadler's work in the community includes terms as a board member of the N.C. Council of Churches, Siegel Avenue Partners, and Mecklenburg Ministries, and currently he serves on the boards of Union Presbyterian Seminary, Loaves and Fishes, the Hispanic Summer Program, and the Charlotte Chapter of the NAACP. His activism includes work with the Community for Creative Non-Violence in D.C., Durham C.A.N., H.E.L.P. Charlotte, and he has worked organizing clergy with and developing theological resources for the Forward Together/Moral Monday Movement in North Carolina. Rev. Sadler is the managing editor of the African American Devotional Bible, associate editor of the Africana Bible, and the author of Can a Cushite Change His Skin? An Examination of Race, Ethnicity, and Othering in the Hebrew Bible. He has published articles in Interpretation, Ex Audito, Christian Century, the Criswell Theological Review, and the Journal of the Society of Biblical Literature and has essays and entries in True to Our Native Land, the New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, the Westminster Dictionary of Church History, Light against Darkness, and several other publications. Among his research interests are the intersection of race and Scripture, the impact of our images of Jesus for the perpetuation of racial thought in America, the development of African American biblical interpretation in slave narratives, the enactment of justice in society based on biblical imperatives, and the intersection of religion and politics.

Rev. Rodney Sadler

Co - Chair - People Demanding Action

North Carolina Forward Together/Moral Monday Movem

Radio Host: Politics of Faith - Wednesday @ 11 am

Executive Director and Executive Producer PDA Radio

Andrea Miller is the Executive Director of People Demanding Action, a multi-issue advocacy group. Andrea is both an organizer as well as a digital advocacy expert. She has appeared on the Thom Hartmann show, hosts the Progressive Round Table and is Executive Producer or PDAction Radio. As an IT professional she is also responsible for PDAction's digital strategy and customizes advocacy tools for small to medium size organizations through the Progressive Support Project. She is the former Co-Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, was the Democratic Nominee in 2008 for House of Representatives in the Virginia 4th District. Running on a Medicare for All and clean energy platform, Andrea was endorsed by PDA, California Nurses and The Sierra Club. Prior to running for office, Andrea was a part of Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s presidential campaign, first as Statewide Coordinator for Virginia and subsequently as Regional Coordinator. From 2006 until leading the VA Kucinich camppaign Andrea was MoveOn.org’s Regional Coordinator for Central, Southwest and Hampton Roads areas of Virginia and West Virginia.

Andrea Miller

Board Member and Executive Director

Spotsylvania, VA

President and Executive Director

Since September 2013, Dr. Gabriela D. Lemus has served as the President of Progressive Congress. Dr. Lemus served as Senior Advisor to Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and was Director of the Office of Public Engagement from July 2009 until August 2013. Prior to her appointment, she was the first woman to hold the position of Executive Director at the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) from 2007-2009, and the first woman to chair the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) from 2008-2009. During her tenure at LCLAA, she helped co-found the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change (NLCCC) and was a Commissioner for the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change (CEAAC). She served 3-year terms on the advisory boards of both the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) from 2005-2008 and the United States Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP) from 2006-2009. In January 2013, she was confirmed by the DC Council to sit on the Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia. From 2000-2007, she served as Director of Policy and Legislation at the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) where she launched the LULAC Democracy Initiative - a national Hispanic civic participation campaign and founded Latinos for a Secure Retirement - a national campaign to preserve the Social Security safety net. Dr. Lemus was adjunct professor of international relations and border policy at the University of Memphis, San Diego State University, and the University of San Diego; as well as a Guest Scholar at the University of California, San Diego – Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies. Dr. Lemus has appeared in both English and Spanish language media outlets, including CNN, CNN en Español, C-SPAN, MSNBC, NBC's Hardball, Fox's Neil Cavuto, Univision and NBC-Telemundo among others. She received her doctorate in International Relations from the University of Miami in 1998.

Dr. Gabriela D. Lemus

Co - Chair - People Demanding Action

President and Executive Director

Progressive Congress

Team Leader and Climate Action Radio Host

Russell Greene has been focused on the climate crisis since 1988. He leads the Progressive Democrats of America Stop Global Warming and Environmental Issue Organizing Team, is Advisory Board Chair for iMatter, Kids vs. Global Warming, vice-chair legislation for the California Democratic Party Environmental Caucus and has been an executive in the restaurant industry for over 30 years, with a current focus on the impact of sustainability in business.

Russell Greene

President, People Demanding Action

President & CEO

Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, is a minister, community activist and one of the most influential people in Hip Hop political life. He works tirelessly to encourage the Hip Hop generation to utilize its political and social voice.   A national leader and pacemaker within the green movement, Rev Yearwood has been successfully bridging the gap between communities of color and environmental issue advocacy for the past decade. With a diverse set of celebrity allies, Rev Yearwood raises awareness and action in communities that are often overlooked by traditional environmental campaigns. Rev Yearwood’s innovative climate and clean energy work has garnered the Hip Hop Caucus support from several environmental leaders including former Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, National Wildlife Federation, Earthjustice, Sierra Club and Bill McKibben’s 350.org. Rolling Stone deemed Rev Yearwood one of our country’s “New Green Heroes” and Huffington Post named him one of the top ten change makers in the green movement. He was also named one of the 100 most powerful African Americans by Ebony Magazine in 2010, and was also named to the Source Magazine’s Power 30, Utne Magazine’s 50 Visionaries changing the world, and the Root 100 Young Achievers and Pacesetters. Rev Yearwood is a national leader in engaging young people in electoral activism. He leads the national Respect My Vote! campaign and coalition (www.respectmyvote.com). In the 2012 Elections, numerous celebrity partners have joined the campaign to reach their fan bases, including Respect My Vote! spokesperson 2 Chainz. The Hip Hop Caucus registered and mobilized tens of thousands of young voters to the polls in 2012. In 2008, the Hip Hop Caucus set a world record of registering the most voters in one day: 32,000 people across 16 U.S. cities. This effort was part of the Hip Hop Caucus’ 2008 “Respect My Vote!” campaign with celebrity spokespeople T.I., Keyshia Cole and many other recording artists, athletes, and entertainers. Rev Yearwood entered the world of Hip Hop Politics when he served as the Political and Grassroots Director of Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network in 2003 and 2004. In 2004 he also was a key architect and implementer of three other voter turnout operations – P. Diddy’s Citizen Change organization which created the “Vote Or Die!” campaign; Jay Z’s “Voice Your Choice” campaign; and, “Hip Hop Voices”, a project at the AFL-CIO. It was in 2004 that he founded the Hip Hop Caucus to bring the power of the Hip Hop Community to Washington, DC. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Rev Yearwood established the award winning Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign where he led a coalition of national and grassroots organizations to advocate for the rights of Katrina survivors. The coalition successfully stopped early rounds of illegal evictions of Katrina survivors from temporary housing, held accountable police and government entities to the injustices committed during the emergency response efforts, supported the United Nations “right to return” policies for internally displaced persons, promoted comprehensive federal recovery legislation, and campaigned against increased violence resulting from lack of schools and jobs in the years after Katrina. Rev Yearwood is a retired U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer. In the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq he began speaking out against such an invasion. He has since remained a vocal activist in opposition to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2007 he organized a national pro-peace tour, “Make Hip Hop Not War”, which engaged urban communities in discussions and rallies about our country’s wars abroad and parallels to the structural and physical violence poor urban communities endure here at home. Rev Yearwood is a proud graduate of Howard University School of Divinity and the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), both Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He served as student body president at both institutions. As a student at UDC, he organized massive student protests and sit-ins, shutting down the school for ten days straight, and achieved victory against budget cutbacks. After graduating from UDC he served as the Director of Student Life at a time when the city was attempting to relocate the school, under his leadership the city was forced to rescind its effort to marginalize and move the campus. Rev Yearwood went on to teach at the Center for Social Justice at Georgetown University, before entering the world of Hip Hop politics with Russell Simmons and civil rights activist, Dr. Benjamin Chavis. He has been featured in such media outlets as CNN, MSNBC, BET, Huffington Post, Newsweek, The Nation, MTV, AllHipHop.com, The Source Magazine, Ebony and Jet, Al Jazeera, BBC, C-Span, and Hardball with Chris Mathews and featured in the Washington Post, The New York Times and VIBE magazine. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. The first in his family to be born in the United States, his parents, aunts, and uncles, are from Trinidad and Tobago. Rev Yearwood currently lives in Washington, DC with his two sons, who are his biggest inspiration to making this world a better place.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood

Board Member

President and CEO

Hip Hop Caucus

Board Member

Marc Carr’s passion for social justice and entrepreneurship has led him to work on civil rights campaigns in the Deep South and organize community forums in the U.S. and West Africa. His professional experience includes heading the sales division of a major international corporation in West Africa, consulting for the United Nations Foundation, and working as a Social Media Analyst for McKinsey & Co. Marc is the Founder of Social Solutions, an organization devoted to crowd-sourcing tech solutions to solve intractable social problems. Social Solutions produces a monthly event series, the Capitol Innovation Forum, and the yearly Social Innovation Festival, along with a podcast series, the Capitol Justice Podcast. Social Solutions also spearheads the Capitol Justice Lab, an initiative to reduce the incarceration rate in the nation’s capital by half in five years. Marc is expecting his Master’s Degree in Social Enterprise in 2016 from the American University School of International Service.

Marc Carr

Board Member

Social Solutions

Washington, DC

Board Member

Lise received her Doctorate in Medicine in 1982 from the University of Paris. After interning at hospitals in Paris and Lome, Togo, she completed her residency in psychiatry at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. Board certified in both general and forensic psychiatry, Lise worked as a staff psychiatrist in public mental health centers in Alexandria and Fairfax, Virginia. For more than twenty years Lise has maintained a private practice in psychiatry. An Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University and an active member of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, she has worked to educate the public on mental health issues through writing in professional journals, the press and other media outlets. A frequent guest on local and national radio and television, Lise has addressed a range of issues on violence, trauma, and mental illness. Through Physicians for Human Rights, she conducts evaluations of victims of torture seeking asylum in this country and advocates on their behalf. She has served as a consultant to the CIA where she developed psychological assessments of world leaders. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti Lise provided mental health services to those traumatized by the events. In 2005, concerned about the direction the country was taking -- and believing that a background in science and human behavior would strengthen the political process -- she ran for the U.S. Senate seat in Maryland. In September, 2006, she was chosen as one of the first fifty persons to be trained in Nashville by Al Gore to educate the public about global warming. Lise is an expert on climate change and public health, with a particular interest in the psychological impacts of climate change. She frequently writes and speaks about these issues. In collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation and with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation she organized a conference held in March 2009 on the mental health and psychological impacts of climate change. Lise is on the board of The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard School of Public Health, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and the International Transformational Resilience Coalition.

Dr. Lise Van Susteren

Board Member

Moral Action on Climate

Maryland

Monday, 01 September 2014 00:00

DC Democracy and Statehood Timeline

Written by Anise Jenkins | FreeDC.org

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DC Statehood Activists line the streets in 1920s DC Public Library

The fight for equality for the residents of Washington DC started in the very early 1800's when the Organic Act of 1801 established the U.S. Capital to include the cities of Alexandria, Georgetown, and Washington. Having only just recently fought the Revolutionary War to attain their freedoms from the Crown along with the rest of the citizens of the United States, the residents of these cities found themselves stripped of their own home rule and full representation in Congress! It didn't have to be that way.

The bill could have, nay, should have only carved out the lands needed to house the legislative and executive branches and various other buildings, monuments and grounds. It didn't have to include ALL of the 100 miles square (102) allowed by the Constitution. It didn't HAVE TO disenfranchise and make aliens of the entire populace of the three urban centers. After all, the Article says the District MAY BE so large, not must be so.

Alexandrians and Arlingtonians are Virginians today because of that explicit language. They were "re-freed" in 1846, and the constitutionally flexible DC Line was redrawn to include only about 69 miles square, leaving only we sorry Washingtonians and Georgetowners to remain in political bondage. It doesn't have to and should not remain so.

1787 US Constitution–Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17–The ‘District Clause’ chooses the location of what is today Washington, DC to become the new Federal Capital.

Before 1801, - District residents cast votes for members of Congress in Maryland or Virginia and for President as part of the neighboring states 1801 Organic Act of 1801 – Establishes DC as U.S. Capital

Congress votes to take complete control over 10 square miles – See District Clause (U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 8, paragraph 17)
Residents’ voting rights/rights to Congressional representation are lost

1874 – 1967 - Territorial government and non-voting Delegate abolished

Congress initiates Direct Rule–a three-member commissioner government is appointed by the president/ approved by Congress (all white until 1960’s)

20th Century
1960 Segregationist Rep. John McMillan favors DC Vote for President.

Compromise meant to satisfy DC desire for statehood/representation (DC limited to 3 electoral votes no matter what the population)

1961 - 23rd Amendment passes Congress and state legislatures. Gives DC residents right to vote for President, but limits DC three votes in the Electoral College

1964 - DC residents vote in their first Presidential Election. (Lyndon Baines Johnson)

1964-1973 DC suffers 243 casualties in the Vietnam War–more than 10 other states

1965 - Federal Voting Rights Act is passed, strengthening the 14th and 15th amendments on voting rights. Over half a million African-Americans who live in DC, however, are still without voting representation in Congress.

1965 – As part of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. James Forman, Executive Secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, send Marion Barry to Washington, DC to campaign for home rule (Free DC Movement).

1966 – Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) support Home Rule for D.C.

1967 – First National Home Rule Day

1967 – DC has Home Rule Float in LBJ’s Presidential Inaugural Parade on Penn. Ave.

1967 – 3- Commissioner form of Government ends – LBJ appoints Walter Washington as Mayor and appoints the first Council.

1968 – DC joins widespread rioting in urban America after assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

1968 - DC residents elect a Board of Education (School Board)

1971 - Statehood committee formed; first ‘DC Statehood day’ to educate and inform the public on statehood; first DC statehood bill is introduced into Congress (Ronald Dellums–D; Fred Schwengel–R)

1971 - Congress gives DC right to elect non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives – Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy elected to this post

1972 – Segregationist Rep. McMillan (D-SC) loses his seat and therefore his chairmanship of the District Committee. DC Del. Walter Fauntroy mobilizes DC residents and others to go to South Carolina to defeat him.

1973 - Under new Chairman of District Committee, Rep. Charles Diggs of Detroit, DC Home Rule Act–The DC Self-Government Reorganization Act–grants the city an elected mayor and a 13-member council (President LBJ)

1974 - First Mayor (Walter Washington) and council are elected

1976 - House calls for a floor vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to give DC voting representation in Congress. DC Del. Fauntroy main mobilizer. The amendment wins the majority of the vote (229:181) but is still not passed.

1977 - President Carter back DC Congressional Vote but not statehood.

1978 - DC Voting Rights Constitutional Amendment approved in Congress–would give the District 2 senators and 1 Congressman if authorized–requires ratification from a majority of the states (2/3rds of congress – 3/4ths of state legislatures)

1980 – DC residents vote for initiative to draft state constitution.

1981 - DC Statehood Commission and DC Compact Commission established to study path to DC statehood and plan to mobilize community and nation.

1982 DC Statehood Constitutional Convention drafts a state constitution; Statehood constitution formally approved by DC Residents

State constitution ratified–“New Columbia”
Shadow delegation created (1 Statehood Representative and 2 Statehood Senators to lobby for statehood)
Authorization from Congress never granted

1985 – Sen. Edward Kennedy introduces statehood bill. Senate takes no action.

1987 – Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduces statehood Bill – Senate takes no action

1987 - The House DC Committee votes to approve the DC Home Rule Charter submitted by non-voting Del. Fauntroy (D-DC) which grants DC Statehood and full voting rights; however, the bill later dies in Congress

1985 - DC Full Voting Rights Amendment fails after 13 slate legislatures reject it

1990 - DC residents elect DC Statehood Delegation (two Senators and one Representative whose responsibility is to lobby for DC statehood).

1990 – President George Walker Bush announces he opposes Statehood.

1990 - Senators Edward Kennedy and Paul Simon introduced a bill for statehood for DC.

1991 - Statehood Senator Jesse Jackson begins term as first Senior Shadow Senator for DC with Florence Pendleton as his Junior Senator and Charles Moreland, first Representative.

Non-voting Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) begins first term as DC Representative in the House

1992 - House DC Committee again votes on statehood

Bill never reaches House

1993 - DC Statehood Bill H.R. 51, introduced by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, defeated 277:153 in the House

1995 - Congress rules to terminate DC delegate from House of Representatives, removing any present voter privileges

1995 – Congress imposes non-elected DC Control Board over DC government

1997 – Stand Up! for Democracy in DC Coalition (www.FreeDC.org) is formed after the takeover of the D.C. government by Congress to educate and advocate for full democracy for D.C. residents.

1998 – DC Residents filed two lawsuits (Adams v. Daley - for self-determination filed by George LaRoche, Esq. and Alexander v. Daley - for voting rights, filed by Jamin Raskin, Esq. • Congress passes bill that prevents the city from spending money on the litigating the suits.

1998 – DC Vote is formed as a voting rights education and advocacy organization.

2000 – Two members of Stand Up! For Democracy in DC (Karen Szulgit and Anise Jenkins) are arrested for protesting the introduction of a bill by Rep. Bob Barr which caused the counting of the votes for Initiative 59 (the Medical Marijuana Initiative which won over 69% of the vote in all 8 wards.) They were eventually acquitted by a DC jury.

2000 - The two lawsuits are joined. A 3-judge panel rules against the lawsuits by a 2:1 vote stating that the Constitution excludes DC in voting rights–Supreme Court refuses to hear appeal by Adams v. Clinton plaintiffs. 1. - DC adopts “Taxation Without Representation” motto for license plates

2003 - U.S. Representative Tom Davis (R-VA) and non-voting Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduces DC One Vote Bill to grant DC voting representative in House (and extra for Utah)–No Taxation Without Representation Act of 2003 (S.617) (H.R. 1285)–nine cosponsors

Never reaches vote

2005 - January 2005 nationwide poll found that 82 percent of Americans support full voting representation for the District, while 71 percent support full budgetary autonomy for the city. But more importantly, roughly 80 percent of Americans expressed some level of ignorance towards the District's second-class status, and were more likely to support voting rights when made aware of it.

2006 - Davis/Norton’ single vote bill is reintroduced - Again fails to reach vote

2006 – United Nation’s Human Rights Committee finds DC’s lack of voting representation in Congress to violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights–a treaty ratified by more than 160 countries, including the US.

2007 Washington Post poll suggests 61 percent (788) DC Adults want statehood.

Davis/Norton single vote Bill is again reintroduced into a now Democratic Congress
House passes the bill
Stalled in Congress

2008 - Congress removes restriction on DC right to spend its money on lobbying for statehood

2008 – Presidential Candidate Barack Obama (D-IL) gives his support for statehood.

DC Council establishes Special Committee on DC Statehood and Self-Determination

2009 - 51st State Commission Legislation is introduced into DC Council

2009 - Senate prepares to vote on a similar single vote bill proposed by Representatives Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) – handgun amendment is attached to bill. No action

2010 – The DC One Vote bill was withdrawn when Senator John Ensign (R-NV) introduced an amendment to the DC House Voting Rights Act (S.160) to repeal many of DC's gun control laws and strip the DC Council of the power to legislate gun control laws.

2010 Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduce a standalone bill to make it easier to buy guns and ammunition in the District and to repeal local registration and firearm storage requirements.

2011 Mayor Vincent Gray endorses D.C. statehood in his inaugural address.

2011 House of Representatives, now controlled by the Republican Party, strips D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of her vote in the Committee of the Whole.

2011 D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduces 3 bills, the first of which is H.R. 265, the New Columbia Admission Act. Over the course of the year, 15 cosponsors are added. This is the first DC Statehood bill introduced into Congress since 1995.

2011 D.C. Council unanimously approves the "Sense of the Council on Calling on Congress to Admit the District of Columbia as the 51st State of Union Resolution of 2011."

2011 41 D.C. residents (dubbed the "D.C. 41 for 51"), including Mayor Vincent Gray and six members of the D.C. Council, are arrested for sitting down in the street outside the Hart Senate Office Building in an act of civil disobedience to protest Congressional riders on the District budget bill. Arrestees include Anise Jenkins, executive director, Stand Up! for Democracy in DC (Free DC). She along with 7 others arrestees, forming the DC Democracy 8) and was the only defendant acquitted in this trial.

2011 Soon after, 14 more D.C. residents, including D.C. Senator Michael D. Brown and Council Member Mary Cheh, are arrested in similar demonstrations. The May 4 demonstration follows a House of Representatives vote to permanently ban the use of D.C. tax money to pay for abortions of low-income women. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Keith Silver (SMD 6C06) demanded a trial and was acquitted in November 2011.

2011 Twelve more D.C. residents, including Trayon White, the Ward 8 representative on the D.C. State Board of Education, Dr. Dennis Wiley and his wife Christina of the Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ, and former youth mayor Markus Batchelor, are arrested for sitting down in front of the White House to protest D.C.'s lack of rights and demanding that "President Obama, stand up for D.C." This brings to 72 the number of people arrested.

2011 Congress passes the fiscal year 2012 omnibus spending bill, including the D.C. budget, and removes all riders except, for the second year in a row, a rider prohibiting the District government from using its local taxes monies to pay for abortion services for poor District women.

2012 Prince George's County Council (Maryland) consisting of many former DC resident, on its own initiative approves a resolution supporting admitting the District of Columbia as the 51st state.

2012 Sx George Washington University students who are members of the DC Statehood Student Association are arrested by the Capitol Police for a nonviolent sit-down for D.C. statehood.

2012 Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, refuses to let D.C.'s Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton speak on a bill that would ban abortions in D.C. once a fetus is 20 weeks past fertilization, even though the bill would only affect her constituents. Stand Up _ Free DC Executive Director was thrown out of the hearing for refusing to remove her “Free DC” baseball cap.

2012 General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA approves resolution Co33 endorsing Statehood for the District of Columbia.

2012 The D.C. Council unanimously votes to hold a referendum to amend the District of Columbia's charter to authorize budget autonomy (i.e. remove Congress from having to approve how District tax funds are spent).

2013 D.C.'s non-voting Delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, introduces the New Columbia Admission Act (HR 292) in the 113th Congress.

2013 Senator Thomas Carper, Chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, introduces S. 132, the New Columbia Admissions Act, a companion bill to H.R. 292. S. 132 is co-sponsored by three senior Democratic senators, Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

2013 D.C. voters approve the charter amendment to authorize budget autonomy (46,608 votes in favor versus 7,396 against and 3,033 not voting).

2013 Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-NY) becomes the 51st cosponsor of H.R. 292, the New Columbia Admission Act.

2013 In their remarks at the June 19, 2013 dedication of the District of Columbia's gift of a statue of Frederick Douglass to the U.S. Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speak out for the rights of the people of the District of Columbia.

1. Information compiled and researched for Stand Up! for Democracy in DC (www.FreeDC.org) by Anise Jenkins; sources include “City of Magnificent Intentions”, DC Government Resource Center, former DC Delegate Rev. Walter Fauntroy, WAMU-FM radio website, Mark S. Greek, Photo Archivist, Washingtoniana, and “DC Statehood Yes We Can Timeline”.

More educational information about DC Statehood can be found on www.FreeDC.org

Read 29951 times Last modified on Thursday, 30 October 2014 15:54

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