[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5987]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         GRANT THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA STATEHOOD IN THE UNION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. 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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