On July 16, 2020, the DC History Center presented “Is Statehood Possible?” an online conversation between historian George Derek Musgrove and journalist Bob Levey on the history of statehood and its current prospects.
When Congress first convened in the new District of Columbia in 1800, it voted to assume “exclusive jurisdiction” over the territory—that is, legislative control over the new seat of government—a right given to Congress in the Constitution.
The vote was not unanimous.
Opponents argued that exclusive jurisdiction would mean that no residents would be able to vote for representatives in a government making decisions affecting them. Citizens would have no voice in the laws by which they would be governed, a situation that directly violated American democracy. Opponents also argued that national lawmakers shouldn’t have to make rules for the residents of what should grow into a small city.
That is exactly what happened, with many fits and starts along the way. DC gained the right to elect a city government in 1802. As historian Steven J. Diner points out, “Congress generally ignored the capital and left its three local governments (Washington City, Georgetown, and Washington County) free to manage as best they could” until the Civil War. The end of Reconstruction brought the loss of elected government and a century of rule by Congress and the Executive Branch through three presidentially appointed commissioners. Elected government did not return until 1974, but it came with continued congressional oversight.
The campaign for statehood is designed to detach the city from its overseers. As these essays describe, the reluctance to “Free DC,” as a current slogan has it, stems in great measure from both sheer racism and partisan politics.
"The Case for Statehood" is an installment in the DC History Center’s Context for Today series of online conversations with thoughtful and thought-provoking historians, activists, journalists, and community members.
George Derek Musgrove, Ph.D. is an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. In addition to Chocolate City, Musgrove is the author of Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics: How the Harassment of Black Elected Officials Shaped Post-Civil Rights America (2012). Dr. Musgrove received the 2003-2004 Anne E. Plato predoctoral fellowship at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and the 2007-2008 postdoctoral fellowship in the Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy at Carnegie Mellon University to support his work. He serves on the Editorial Board of Washington History: Magazine of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
Bob Levey is a prize-winning journalist who has covered the Washington scene since the Johnson Administration. For 36 years he was on the staff of the Washington Post, including 23 years writing the local column “Bob Levey’s Washington.” In 1983 he wrote a series of articles on the Delaware legislature’s debate on ratifying the D.C. Voting Rights Amendment. Levey has also been a talk show host and commentator on radio and TV. He holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and is co-author of Washington Album: A Pictorial History of the Nation’s Capital (2000) and author of the novel, Larry Felder, Candidate (2019). Currently he writes a monthly column for Senior Beacon Newspapers, gives talks on journalism and local politics, and is a trustee of Montgomery (Maryland) College.
On June 16, 2021, the DC History Center invited long-time DC statehood activists Anise Jenkins and Samuel Jordan to join Ty Hobson-Powell, a young activist, to discuss the movement for DC statehood: its roots, new and continuing stakes, and how statehood activism is adapting to the current political climate. Cosby Hunt, local history teacher and director of programming for the Center for Inspired Teaching joined the discussion as moderator.
March 30th, 2023. The passage of the DC Home Rule Act of 1973 led to DC’s first local election for the DC Council since Reconstruction. After a century of federal rule, DC residents would go to the polls in 1974 to elect a Mayor, members of the Council of the District of Columbia, the Board of Education (first elected in 1968), and Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, which were created to ensure that every District resident had a voice in decisions impacting their own lives. A city that was more than 70% Black could finally elect its own leadership and more fully participate in shaping the city’s future. This panel discussion commemorates the 50th anniversary of the DC Home Rule Act through the voices of some of the surviving elected members of DC’s first Home Rule government.
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