I found this article when I was looking up more information about the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution:
Thanks to a succession of oversights by the Founding Fathers and early Congresses, the residents of the District of Columbia have never enjoyed one particular constitutional right cherished by all other Americans: the privilege of voting. There was no reasoning attending the oversights; it was just plain neglect.† Last week Rhode Island cast the 36th affirmative vote for the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution, giving 746,000 Washingtonians the right to vote in presidential elections — and three electoral votes. Ohio and Kansas are expected to ratify the amendment this week, making the necessary two-thirds majority for official adoption (only one legislature—Arkansas—rejected the amendment outright, on the ground that 54% of the District’s citizens are Negroes).
But after 161 years, Washingtonians will be limited to voting for the President and Vice President. They will continue to have no representative in Congress, no voice in their municipal government.
†One segment of the capital gained the right to vote in 1846, when one-third of the District’s land area, now Arlington County, was ceded back to Virginia.
What this article shows to me is how racist America used to be….
In some ways, even with an African American president, it still is.
sigh
Related 23rd Amendment Entries:
- Scan & Text of the 23rd Amendment to the United States Constitution
- Joseph Story: Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Book 3, Chapter 23 - POWER OVER SEAT OF GOVERNMENT AND OTHER CEDED PLACES
- Map of the Ratification of the 23rd Amendment to the United States Constitution
- Vote Victory Result Of Luck, Hard Work, Some Sweat, Tears - The Washington Post, March 30, 1961
- VOTE PLEA TO CONGRESS - Americanize 400,000, Urges D.C. Joint Citizens' Committee - The Washington Post, February 13, 1918
- Arkansas Is First To Reject District Voting Amendment - The Washington Post, January 25, 1961
- The 23rd Amendment - Time Magazine - March 31, 1961