Statehood: A Timeline

DC Statehood: a Chronology

New Year's Eve, 1970: Ad hoc statehood Committee applied to the board of elections for approval as a political party.

January-February, 1971: Committee formed to investigate the feasibility of statehood

January, 1971: Julius Hobson announced his candidacy as a nonvoting delegate to Congress on the Statehood Party ticket. (Statehood Call, February, 1972)

March 6, 1971: First "Statehood Day" takes place with series of community events to educate and inform public on statehood.

1971: The first of several unsuccessful statehood bills is introduced in Congress by Democrat Ronald Dellums and Republican Fred Schwengel

February 26, 1972: First convention of the DC Statehood Party

1974: Julius Hobson elected to the Council-at-Large seat running on the Statehood Party ticket

1977: After Hobson's death in 1977, Hilda Mason appointed and then elected as Council membe At-Large on the Statehood Party ticket

November 4, 1980: DC residents approve a statehood initiative

1981: DC Statehood Commission and the DC Compact Commission established

November 4, 1981: 45 delegates elected to a Constitutional Convention to serve 2-3 year terms.

1982: The DC Statehood Constitutional Convention officially opens with 45 delegates

May 27, 1982: New Columbia is officially chosen as the name for the new state

May 29, 1982: Statehood Convention adopts a constitution

November, 1982: DC voters approve the new constitution

1985: DC Voting Rights Amendment approved by Congress in 1978 to give the District two senators and a congressman; amendment dies after 13 state legislatures reject it.

February 1987: The DC City Council and Delegate Walter Fauntroy substitute DC Home Rule Charter for the 1982 approved constitution for submission to Congress.

June 1987: The House DC Committee votes to approve the DC Home Rule Charter submitted by Fauntroy which grants DC Statehood and full voting rights; however, the bill later dies in Congress

March, 1990: President Bush announces he is opposed to DC statehood.

November, 1990: DC elects a "shadow" statehood delegation to lobby Congress for admission as a state.

April 2, 1992: The House DC Committee again voted to make DC a state but the measure never reached the full House.

November 1993: DC Statehood Bill was defeated by a vote of 277 to 153 in Congress

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GREEN WORDS

"We do not have to accept or tolerate such glaring disparities in our society. We do not have to accept or tolerate bloated Pentagon spending, unfair tax cuts, attacks on our civil liberties, and on workers' rights to unionize. We don't have to accept or tolerate our children dropping out of high school, college education unreachable because tuition is so high, or our country steeped in debt."
- Cynthia McKinney, Green Party Presidential Candidate 2008