D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty on Monday led several thousand people on a fast-paced Emancipation Day march to the U.S. Capitol to demand a vote in Congress.
Flanked by D.C. Council members, Fenty guided the march up Pennsylvania Avenue carrying a banner that read “First freed, then taxed. Still no vote.”
From the stage adjacent to the Capitol reflecting pool, Fenty said the biting wind and rain-snow mix couldn’t deter the determination of disenfranchised D.C. residents.
“We’re right here, Congress,” Fenty said. “We’re right in front of your face.”
Legislation now before Congress would expand the House by two seats, one for the District and the other for Utah. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is expected to bring the bill to the floor, where it is likely to pass, as soon as this week.
“We march to tell the Congress of the United States and the president of the United States, that it is 206 years late but we’ll take it anyway,” said D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who stands to become the city’s first voting member of the House in two centuries.
But the measure faces a reticent Senate and a threatened veto from President Bush. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., a key ally of the voting rights effort, joined Norton on Monday for a reception to further the effort.
The weather diminished march participation — DC Vote claimed 6,000 people had signed up — forced organizers to lower their elevated stage to ground level and cut back the 41 scheduled speakers to about four.
“We are on a national stage,” DC Vote Executive Director Ilir Zherka said. “And the world is watching.”
Council Chairman Vincent Gray said the District’s “colonial status is an international embarrassment.”
At least two other groups worked their way into the march — those who want statehood now and those who want Fenty to put his school takeover measure to a citizen referendum.
“Democracy starts at home,” the groups chanted.
