WEBVTT - Why Isn't Washington, D.C. a State? 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:06.560 Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:12.440 brain Stuff Lauren bog obam here. On June, the U. S. 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.119 House of Representatives passed historic legislation that would transform the 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.959 District of Columbia into the nation's fifty first state. The 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.520 bill would give the district's current seven hundred and five thousand, 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:26.760 seven hundred and forty nine residents the opportunity to elect 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.000 a congress member and two senators with full voting rights 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:32.559 for the first time in the nation's history, though the 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:37.239 bill still faces an uphill battle in the U. S. Senate. Currently, 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.600 Washington d C has a non voting delegate to the House, 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:44.600 Eleanor Holmes Norton, who introduced the statehood legislation, but has 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:47.200 no say in its passage, as well as to shadow 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:51.920 senators who similarly cannot vote on legislation. The bill would 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:55.000 shrink the federal capital to a small area encompassing the 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:58.360 White House, capital buildings, Supreme Court, and other federal buildings 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.000 along the National Mall. The rest of the city would 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:05.280 become the fifty first state. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:08.120 in a news conference. For more than two centuries, the 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.200 residents of Washington d C, the District of Columbia, have 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.520 been denied their right to fully participate in their democracy. 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.800 Pelosi said that the importance of giving Washington d C. 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:22.280 Full voting rights was demonstrated earlier this month when the 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:26.080 administration of President Donald Trump deployed federal law enforcement agents 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.040 and National Guard troops against protesters in Washington, d C. 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:33.960 Without the resident's approval. House Majority Leader Sunny Hoyer said, 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.440 this is not just an issue of local governance and fairness, 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:41.320 it's a major civil rights issue as well. At this point, 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:45.000 the legislation is a largely symbolic statement that few expect 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.560 to pass, at least for now, because it would have 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.680 to get through the Republican controlled U. S. Senate, where 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.960 Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated in an interview with Fox 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.680 News that he would deny it a vote even if 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.800 the Senate did approve it. Trump most likely would veto 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.440 the measure. Trump said to The New York Post in May, 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.560 Why so we can have two more Democrats senators and 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.799 five more Congressmen. No, thank you, That will never happen. 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:15.480 But the current controversy raises another question. Why didn't the 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.160 nation's founders make Washington d C. A state in the 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:20.720 first place, But when they decided to create a new 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.960 national capital, why did they choose to deny residents the 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:26.600 same representation in the national government that the rest of 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:31.760 the nation citizens have. As historians explain, Washington's lack of 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.959 full representation has mainly to do with two things. First, 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:38.080 there was a desire on the part of some of 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.240 the founders to have a strong federal government that wouldn't 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:43.920 be dependent upon the state it was in for services 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.240 and protection. But it also has something to do with 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.880 Southern slaveholders desire to have a national capital in their 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:55.000 territory with weak self governance so that slavery wouldn't face 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:59.880 any local political resistance. Even after the Civil War, segregationists 0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:02.720 in Congress fought for many years to keep control over 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.080 the district's administration and deny any power to the city's 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:11.359 largely black population. On that first count, though, an early 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.880 U s military mutiny was a primary event that convinced 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:19.760 the founders to keep Washington, d C. From statehood. Ec Initially, 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:24.040 Philadelphia served as the nation's capital, but the Confederation Congress, 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.440 which was the predecessor of the present legislative branch, found 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.640 itself in a difficult situation. In June of three, that's 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.400 when Pennsylvania militiamen who had been furloughed after the Revolutionary 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.880 War decided to march to Philadelphia to protest the government 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.240 taking away their jobs and not paying them what they 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:45.680 were owed. When these mutineers arrived in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.440 government began negotiating with them, but rumors started to spread 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.080 among the nervous national legislators that the soldiers might loot 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:56.080 the government chartered Bank of North America if they didn't 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.800 get their money. A committee of delegates led by Alexander 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.480 Wilton demanded the Pennsylvania state government put down the rebellion, 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.480 but the state government declined, saying that the protesters weren't violent. 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.440 In the view of some historians, that actually was just 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.240 fine with Hamilton's, who was looking to advocate for a 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.440 central government with its own police powers over its domain. 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.919 Hamilton's persuaded an Ally, the then President of Congress, to 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.400 convene a session on a weekend, even though there weren't 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.080 enough members around to reach a quorum, so that it 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.320 would create the impression that they were menaced by the protest. 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:34.400 Hamilton's then chastised state leaders for failing to protect the 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:36.919 federal government against the soldiers and thus putting it in 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:41.680 a weak and disgusting position. The handful of legislators then 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:45.080 fled to New Jersey, perhaps specifically to add to the drama. 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:50.120 A few years later, the Constitution's framers specified in Article one, 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.400 Section eight, clause seventeen that the national capital should be 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.719 located in a district quote not exceeding ten miles square 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.400 that would be controlled by the federal government and not 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:03.080 by any date. That meant that members of Congress wouldn't 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.120 be dependent upon local or state officials to protect them 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.600 from future mobs of aggrieved citizens, and, as future President 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:14.599 James Madison noted in Federalist forty three, by not being 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:18.480 dependent upon a state, Congress would avoid potential for corruption 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:23.719 quote an imputation of awe or influence equally dishonorable to 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.360 the government and dissatisfactory to the other members of the Confederacy. 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.520 Southerners and Northerners in the new government worked out a 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.240 compromise in which the capital would be located in the 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.960 South in exchange for Southern Congress members dropping their opposition 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:40.880 to the federal government, paying off Northern States debts from 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.719 the Revolutionary War. The location along the Potomac River was 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.520 attractive to George Washington because it was less than twenty 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.599 miles or about thirty two kilometers from his Mountain Vernon estate, 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.200 and because he had a vision of turning the capital 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.320 into a prosperous riverport and commercial hub. In eighteen o one, 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:01.239 Congress passed the Organic Act, which took away district residents 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:05.080 right to vote for congressional representatives, and the following year 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:07.640 granted a charter to a portion of the district the 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.440 city of Washington, which was allowed to elect a twelve 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.040 member city council. The mayor initially was appointed by the U. 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:17.040 S President, though in eighteen twenty the law was changed 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:21.160 to allow a mayoral election as well as for that 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:26.120 second count. Washington, d C. Was situated between two slave states, 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:30.039 Maryland and Virginia, which helped protect the slavery there from 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:34.200 northern influence. But we spoke via email with J. D. Dickey, 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:38.320 the author of the book Empire of Mud, the Secret 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:42.520 History of Washington, d C. He said that district became 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.039 a bulwark of Southern legislative power and slave trading and 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:50.039 human bondage became legion there, and so, with the population 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.520 in the district largely made up of enslaved people and 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.359 disenfranchised citizens, the only people who could vote federally or 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:00.200 hold federal power of any kind were congressmen elected by 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.640 voters who didn't live there. In the first half of 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:07.320 the eighteen hundreds, Washington became a center for the domestic trade, 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.200 home to one of the busiest markets involved in the 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.160 sale of human beings. It was a sort of place 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.520 where free black man such as Solomon Northrope, whose memoir 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.200 was adapted into the film Twelve Years as Slave, ran 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.679 the danger of being kidnapped and thrown into the slave 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:24.400 pen that was located at what's now the Federal Aviation 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:29.600 Administration's headquarters at eight hundred Independence Avenue Southwest. But we 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.000 also spoke via email with Chris Myers Ash, who's the 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.880 co author, along with George Derrek Musgrove, of the book 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.040 Chocolate City, A History of Race and Democracy in the 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:44.280 Nation's Capital. Ash explained it developed as a southern city, 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.800 not a northern one. Slavery was embedded into the fabric 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.360 of the city from its inception, and the slave trade 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:54.680 quickly became a major industry. After emancipation and a brief 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:59.320 flowering of interracial democracy, the city lost itself government, and 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.560 city leader is embraced Southern style segregation in customs and 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:06.360 social relations. D C was a Southern city until the 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:10.760 late twentieth century. The issues of self government and statehood 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.800 in Washington, d C. Are intertwined with race. Ash says 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.320 the Washington had limited self rule for much of the 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.520 eighteen hundreds. In the eighteen seventies, Congress took that away. 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:26.119 For the next century, Washington was run largely by Southern segregationists, 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.520 such as Senator Theodore Bilbo, a Mississippian who had the 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:33.680 unofficial title of Mayor of Washington. He once warned in 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.439 a speech that the voting rights were granted in Washington, 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:41.840 blacks quote would soon have control of the city. Eventually, 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:46.040 Washington's residence did achieve some rights granted two other American citizens. 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.640 In nineteen sixty one, the twenty third Amendment gave them 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.840 the right to vote in presidential elections, and in nineteen 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.200 seventy three they regained the right to elect council members 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.800 and the mayor. In nineteen seventy eight, Congress passed a 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:04.479 institutional amendment that would have given Washington residents representation in Congress, 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.760 but it had a seven year window for ratification, and 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.800 by the time that expired in only sixteen states had 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:16.160 approved it. In another effort to pass a bill in 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.920 the House to grant statehood to Washington failed by a 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.559 vote of two hundred and seventy seven to just one 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.720 hundred and fifty three, but statehood advocates didn't give up. 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.240 The current legislation, whose two hundred and twenty five co 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.840 sponsors include Speaker Pelosi, is on a path to pass 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:36.040 on a party line vote. The new bill gets around 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.120 the Constitution's Article one by carving out of space in 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.800 the capital for government buildings, which would remain under federal control, 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.840 while converting Washington's mayor to the equivalent of a state governor. 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.320 The current Washington statehood legislation would create the state of 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.679 Washington d C, with the d C standing no longer 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:59.240 for District of Columbia, but rather Douglas Commonwealth. Thus, the 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.200 state would draw it's new name from President George Washington 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.680 and abolitionist Frederick Douglas, thereby differentiating it from the Washington 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:15.360 state that already exists. In the Pacific Northwest. Today's episode 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.960 was written by Patrick Jake Tiger and produced by Tyler Clang. 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:20.440 For more on the lots of other topics, visit how 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.760 stuff works dot com brain stuff It's production of iHeart Radio. 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.360 For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeart 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:29.200 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:29.920 favorite shows.