With activists Ty Hobson-Powell, Anise Jenkins, and Samuel Jordan, Moderator: Cosby Hunt
In June 2020, the House of Representatives passed a historic vote to grant statehood to Washington, DC. Following the 2020 election of a Democrat-led Congress, Delegate Eleanor Norton Holmes reintroduced H.R. 51, which passed for a second time, solidifying the long-time, local issue of DC Statehood as a tenant of the Democratic Party platform.
The relatively sudden national visibility of the movement for DC statehood is invigorated by a new generation of activists, but DC residents’ struggle for local self-determination is as old as the city itself. While repeated campaigns for DC Statehood failed within the halls of Congress, from 1980 to 2016 the percentage of DC voters who supported a local ballot referendum on statehood lept from 60 to 86%. All the while, local statehood activists dared to imagine a more just future for all DC residents.
Long-time DC statehood activists Anise Jenkins and Samuel Jordan join Ty Hobson-Powell, a young activist, to discuss the movement’s roots, new and continuing stakes, and how statehood activism is adapting to the current political climate. Cosby Hunt, a full-time social studies teacher at Thurgood Marshall Academy and manager of youth programs for Center for Inspired Teaching, joins the discussion as moderator to provide additional context.
“Imagining Statehood” is the latest installment in our Context for Today series of online conversations with thoughtful and thought-provoking speakers who look to the past to explain the present. In a previous Context for Today, we asked “Is Statehood Possible?” Now, we join DC statehood activists to imagine the future of DC Statehood.