Grant the District of Columbia Statehood in the Union

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I began this series of remarks yesterday as the District prepares for Emancipation Day on April 16, when Lincoln freed the slaves in the District of Columbia before the national Emancipation Proclamation.

I began with the status of all the citizens of the District of Columbia today with ``Taxation Without Representation,'' the slogan the Founders of our Nation and the Framers of our Constitution used to start the revolution that created the United States of America itself. With those taxes should come statehood.

But if there is any issue with greater command than taxation without representation for statehood for the District of Columbia, it is surely fighting and dying for one's country without representation, securing the vote for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, only to come home with no vote of your own in the Congress that sent you to war, or not coming home at all.

D.C. residents fought and died in the war that created the United States of America itself, and have served in every war since, often suffering casualties well beyond those of fellow Americans, casualties that mounted in each of the major wars of the 20th century: World War I, more casualties than three States; World War II, more casualties than four States; the Korean war, by then more casualties than eight States; and the Vietnam war, more casualties than 10 States of the Union.

Not only have thousands fought and died without the vote, many served with unusual distinction and many in the segregated Armed Forces, although African Americans in the District were outnumbered by Whites until recent years. Yet the District produced the first African American Army general, Benjamin O. Davis; the first African American Air Force general, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., a graduate of West Point and commander of the Tuskegee Airmen; Wesley Davis, the first African American Naval Academy graduate; Charles Vernon Bush, the first African American Air Force Academy graduate, and the roster continues today--today the first Deputy Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Admiral Manson Brown, and the first female African American aviator, D.C. National Guard First Lieutenant Demetria Elosiebo.

Our country continues to deny District of Columbia citizens their basic rights at home.

Today, we ask that Congress draw the line on service in the Armed Forces. In the name of those who have fought or died in the Nation's wars, grant the citizens of the District of Columbia equal rights with other Americans. Grant the District of Columbia statehood in the Union.

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