Securing statehood dominates 2026 Emancipation Day conversation in D.C.

By D. Kevin McNeir
Special to The AFRO

Washingtonians of all ages, some even in strollers and wheelchairs, filled city sidewalks and streets, enjoyed a liberty-themed luncheon as guests of the mayor, and frolicked on the fields at RFK Campus, April 16 – 19, for a four-day celebration that marked 2026 DC Emancipation Day.  

Event planners had to change the venue for the parade and star-studded April 19 concert from Franklin Park to 13th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, to accommodate record-breaking crowds. 

Still, while the festivities took place, achieving home rule for the District dominated most conversations.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser challenged several hundred civic leaders, scholars, advocates and honored guests to do everything in their power to secure D.C. statehood during a DC250 Full Democracy Luncheon. 

The invitation-only event, held Friday, April 17, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, featured prominent local leaders who, like Bowser, said the agenda and policies which the Trump Administration has adopted make statehood an issue that Washingtonians can no longer afford to ignore. 

“We have our coalitions assembled, the support of businesses in the region, and our paperwork in place,” Bowser said. “And it’s our charge that when the winds blow our way again, and we have control of the House and Senate, we must demand that our friends be our friends and make D.C. statehood a priority. 

“If we don’t get it the next time, maybe it will be because we don’t care about it that much. Someone told me the other day that perhaps D.C. residents don’t care about home rule. So, I ask you D.C., do you care about home rule? If the answer is ‘yes,’ then act like it!”

Phil Mendelson, chairman of the D.C. Council, said the last 12 months represent a host of reasons why the District needs statehood now.

“D.C. surpasses all the states in federal state taxes per capita and we’re a donor state which means in terms of overall revenue we donate more to the federal government than they give back to us in different programs,” said Mendelson. “Consider that the president can do things with the National Guard in the District that he can’t do elsewhere because we are not a state. He attempted to take over the police department last year.”

“Fifteen bills came out of the House Oversight Committee in the past seven months authorizing the attorney general to try 14-year-olds as adults and repealing our police accountability law,” the chairman continued. “America is the only country in the free world where the national capital does not have representation in the national legislature. This is not what the founding fathers wanted – to disenfranchise residents of the District.” 

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton  honored

During the luncheon, Bowser acknowledged the many years of service which Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has provided to the District in a special tribute that included a moving video showcasing Norton’s rise from a student activist for SNCC to being elected to Congress in 1990. 

“Because of your persistence, we’ve gotten closer to statehood,” Bowser said. “And we’re very close, thanks to your leadership. We just need our fellow Americans to give us the House and Senate in November.”

Mendelson added, “it’s too bad that our warrior on the hill , given her many years of fighting for us for statehood, won’t see D.C. secure statehood under her watch.” 

The Reverend Shavon Arline-Bradley, president and CEO, National Council of Negro Women, delivered the keynote address during which she emphasized the need for African Americans to remember that the ancestors gave up everything–even their lives–to gain their freedom.

“We celebrate D.C. Emancipation Day to honor those who refused to wait for democracy, but instead shaped it themselves,” she said. “They lived in a time when our country claimed to support freedom, yet denied freedom for Blacks, for women, and others. 

“It’s difficult living in the District today because of the distorted views and minimal morals which characterize our president. But our ancestors made it out of the cotton fields and overcame Jim Crow because they had faith. So, we should not be afraid of the storm. We know who is in the boat with us.”

Former Mayor Sharon Pratt, during her call to action, agreed with Arline-Bradley. 

“We got our freedom because people had the gumption to stand up,” Pratt said. “You cannot be lazy if you want freedom and if you want to protect our democracy. Some of us are getting old. Some of us are already old. But we must stand up, join marches and protests, and raise our voices when we’re confronted by the next set of challenges.”

Pratt continued, saying “If nothing else, we must be willing to go to our windows and shout, ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore.’”

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