A Champion of D.C. Voting Rights

(Washington Post File Photo)

In his autobiography, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. praised Eisenhower for his efforts to end segregation in Washington. Powell recounted how the president and his wife, Mamie, refused to attend segregated theaters in the city. Eisenhower telephoned theater operators and asked them to end their segregation policies. He then ordered Attorney General Herbert Brownell to present a brief in the 1953 Supreme Court case that recognized the validity and ordered the enforcement of the "lost" anti-discrimination laws enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the District of Columbia during the tenure of Republican Gov. Alexander "Boss" Shepherd. The favorable ruling in this case opened D.C. restaurants, theaters and other public places to all residents and visitors.

Before his inauguration in 1953, Eisenhower met with members of the D.C. Republican Committee to seek their recommendations on home rule and voting representation in Congress for city residents. Following that meeting, Eisenhower pledged his support for an elected 25-member legislative assembly and governor for the District, a form of government that the local GOP advocated, contending that the District was more like a state than a city. Eisenhower also promised to champion voting representation in Congress for D.C. residents and their right to vote for president.

In his memoirs, Eisenhower noted that he was proud that Congress acted on his recommendation for a D.C. vote for president but that he was disappointed that home rule and representation in Congress were not achieved. Indeed, Eisenhower recommended such action in eight messages to Congress. In one State of the Union address, he called the lack of D.C. voting representation in Congress "unconscionable."

One of Eisenhower's point men in Congress for D.C. voting rights was Sen. Prescott Bush (R-Conn.). Bush rounded up the votes for passage in the Senate of the 23rd Amendment granting D.C. residents votes in the electoral college; Democratic chairmen in the House, however, nullified provisions for voting representation in Congress.

At the time, Eisenhower, Bush and Republican leaders in Congress made the case that D.C. residents should have voting representation in Congress, which taxes them, authorizes wars in which they fight and die, and subjects them to all U.S. laws. Further, these GOP leaders rejected the argument that the Founding Fathers intentionally excluded D.C. residents from representation in Congress. They argued that it was a matter the drafters of the Constitution had overlooked.

Indeed, Alexander Hamilton, during New York's debate on ratification of the Constitution, said that Congress should extend voting representation in Congress to residents of the new capital as soon as its population approached that of a congressional district.

President Bush should honor the work of his grandfather and Eisenhower by urging Congress to enact H.R. 2043 to give the District a vote in the House. In doing so, he would be reaffirming the Republican Party's long-standing support for D.C. voting rights.

-- Nelson F. Rimensnyder
is a historian and a member of the D.C. Republican Committee.
nrimy@covad.net