What would DC be called as a state?

Under the most recent statehood legislation passed by the U.S. House, Washington D.C. would become the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth. The name honors George Washington and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who spent his final years in the city, while deliberately keeping the familiar "D.C." initials that residents have used for two centuries.

The name on the table right now

The bill, H.R. 51, would admit the state of "Washington, Douglass Commonwealth" as the union's 51st state, drawing its new name from President George Washington, a Virginian, and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who was from Maryland. The bill number itself is the joke: H.R. 51 (119th Congress) has once again thrust the issue of District of Columbia statehood into the national conversation.

The legislation would change "District of Columbia" to "Douglass Commonwealth," maintaining the "D.C." abbreviation while paying homage to Frederick Douglass. So residents would still live in D.C. The letters just mean something different.

Douglass's connection to the city is direct and physical. In 1877, Douglass purchased what would be his final home, an estate on a hill in Anacostia in southeast Washington, D.C., surrounded by cedar trees and with a commanding view of the river and city. Douglass named his home Cedar Hill. Born into slavery in 1818, he escaped as a young man and became a leading voice in the abolitionist movement. That home, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, is located at 1411 W Street SE, in Washington, D.C.

How the name evolved

It was not always Douglass Commonwealth. For most of the modern push, the proposed name was much more generic.

The elected delegates for the District of Columbia Constitutional Convention convened to write a constitution for the future state of New Columbia on January 31, 1982. On May 27, 1982, New Columbia was officially chosen as the name for the new state and the new constitution was adopted on May 29, 1982. On November 2, 1982, DC voters ratified the constitution for the State of New Columbia. In 1983, a bill was introduced in Congress for the admission of the State of New Columbia into the United States, but it did not pass.

New Columbia stuck around as the default for over 30 years. Then the DC Council had second thoughts. Although the proposed state name on the ballot sent to voters appeared as "State of New Columbia," the resolution passed by the D.C. Council in October 2016, weeks before the election, changed the name to "State of Washington, D.C.," in which "D.C." stands for "Douglass Commonwealth," a reference to African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who lived in Washington, D.C.

Part of the motivation was historical baggage. The New Columbia name stems from Christopher Columbus. Some were not happy with that, as perception of Columbus has evolved in recent decades from a heroic explorer who discovered the New World to a pariah who conquered indigenous peoples. The other alternatives floated during that 1982 convention included Anacostia, Potomac, Rock Creek, Capital State, and, the fanciful even then, the State of Utopia.

What Congress actually did

The bill passed the House for the first time in history in June of 2020 and passed again in April of 2021. The bill passed along party lines, 232 to 180. The Senate never voted on it either time.

In November 1993, a statehood bill made it to the full House of Representatives for debate and a vote for the first time, where it was defeated by a 277 to 153 margin. The 2020 vote was the first House passage of a DC statehood bill in history.

The bill was introduced by DC's non-voting delegate. The bill, introduced by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and co-sponsored by more than 200 House Democrats, would transform most of the federal district into a new state called Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, while preserving a smaller federal enclave as the permanent seat of government.

What the new state would and would not include

The state would consist of the residential and commercial portions of present-day D.C., and the reduced federal district, which would remain under Congress' control, would consist of the Capitol Complex, the White House, the Supreme Court, the principal federal monuments, and the National Mall area.

In terms of size, the new state would not be small by recent standards. The District pays more in federal taxes than 22 states, and more per capita than any state. More people live in Washington than in Vermont or Wyoming.

The new state would be on equal footing with the existing 50, with the same level of control over its own affairs and full voting representation in Congress, with two senators and one representative.

The bill anticipates the awkwardness of the 23rd Amendment, which still grants electoral votes to the District, by calling for its repeal through an expedited constitutional amendment process.

DC residents voted on the question directly. In the 2016 referendum, 234,134 voted yes (85.17%) and 40,779 voted no (14.83%). Winning over Congress has proved harder than winning over locals. The statehood bill has cleared the House twice and has not yet received a Senate floor vote.

Sources

• Wikipedia: District of Columbia statehood movement
• Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton press release, 118th Congress
• Brennan Center for Justice: DC Statehood Explained
• National Park Service: Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
• GWU Libraries: DC Statehood Constitutional Convention records, 1982
• Wikipedia: 2016 Washington D.C. statehood referendum
• DC Vote: The Path to DC Statehood