Jack, statehood for the District of Columbia is about equal treatment - it’s about racial justice.

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Black people make up 47% of the city. Once granted statehood, D.C. would be the only plurality-Black state in the country. Statehood for D.C. would go far in addressing the inequality in voting power for Black communities in America, as the lack of representation for residents in the district is rooted in intentional racial disenfranchisement.

In 1867, President Andrew Johnson vetoed a bill granting voting power to D.C., but Congress overrode the veto which then granted adults in the district (including Black men) the right to vote. But just as Black voters began exercising that right, Congress replaced D.C.’s territorial government with appointed commissioners instead. Sen. John Tyler Morgan of Alabama explained in 1890, that after Black people began migrating to the district, it became necessary to “deny the right of suffrage entirely to every human being.”

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Congressional failure to grant statehood to D.C. is not at all accidental.

D.C. residents overwhelmingly want statehood. In 2016, 86% of D.C. residents voted in favor of making Washington D.C. a state. Granting statehood would bring our country one step forward in addressing the needs of our growing multi-racial democracy and begin the work of reforming the deeply racist nature of the institutions that govern this country.

Sign the petition: Statehood for D.C. now!

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Keep fighting,
Jayleen Alvarado