That's Actually Kind Of Inaccurate, Because During Lunch With A Fellow Grad Student (the Only Other Civil

That's actually kind of inaccurate, because during lunch with a fellow grad student (the only other civil rights historian in my department), I came up with chapters for my dissertation (I threw in some explanatory links for the nerd-uninitiated).

1. Pre-1945 District home rule activism 2. 1945-1960 demographic shifts 3. 1945-1960 civil rights activism in the District 4. SNCC, Black Power, and D.C. 5. The Twenty-Third Amendment 6. D.C. gets a School Board and House Delegate 7. The District Home Rule Act of 1973

I rock. And because it's Friday, I think that's enough for one day.

womp womp

I need a Rudwick to my Meier. I bet he'd make writing a lot more fun and interesting.

In other news, I hate lit review. It's the part holding up this first prospectus draft, and makes my insides want to die.

This Supreme Court case ruled that restrictive covenants were illegal in Washington, DC.

For the next time I need a reminder.

D.C. Statehood reading list

Websites:

D.C. Government Statehood Page 
 http://statehood.dc.gov 

“Shadow” U.S. Representative Mike Panetta 
 http://www.mikepanetta.com 

D.C. Statehood – Yes We Can!
 http://dcstatehoodyeswecan.org

A website with information on the efforts of District of Columbia residents to get statehood.  Includes historical documents and a timeline on Washington, D.C.’s governmental history as well as how to assist in getting D.C. statehood.

Mark David Richards’ Work @DCWatch 
http://www.dcwatch.com/richards/default.htm

This is a link to a series of columns by D.C. sociologist and historian Mark David Richards about the history of the District of Columbia and efforts to bring democracy to it.

Sam Smith’s “The Statehood Papers”
 http://prorev.com/dcsthdintro.htm

A collection of history and commentary by D.C. journalist Sam Smith on the need and struggle for D.C. Statehood.

The Daily Render by Nikolas Schiller
 http://www.nikolasschiller.com/blog/index.php/archives/category/dc-history/

A digital scrapbook of articles and photographs regarding the history of the District of Columbia compiled by Nikolas Schiller.

Worldrights – Human Rights Advocacy Worldwide
 http://www.world-rights.org/home.htm

Go To “Human Rights in the U.S., DC Equal Congressional Voting Rights Campaign” for information on UN Human Rights Commission, OAS, OSCE actions. Provides information on Washington, D.C. as a human rights

Books and Publications:

*Sam Smith, Captive Capital; Colonial Life in Modern Washington, Indiana University Press, 1974.
 Sam’s book is a classic: a one-stop history and political-sociology of the District. Explains in a nutshell how we got to where we are and why we have been stuck here. Explains the tension between the real people and the rich, business & political élite. Explains the birth of the statehood movement.

*Kenneth R. Bowling, The Creation of Washington, D.C.; the Idea and Location of the American Capital, 1991.
 If you want to know why the District Clause is in the Constitution or why the District of Columbia is located where it’s located, here’s the place to find the answer.

*Steven J. Diner, Democracy, Federalism and the Governance of the Nation’s Capital; 1790-1974, 1987. 
A fine monograph on the District — shorter than Sam Smith’s work and more “academic,” and so an excellent tool.

*Constance McLaughlin Green, Washington – A History of the Capital, 1800-1950, Princeton University Press, 1962.
 This is the best overall history of the District. It was originally issued as a two volume set and then issued in paperback as a single volume.

*Constance McLaughlin Green, The Secret City: A History of Race Relations in the Nation’s Capital, Princeton University Press, 1967. Although slightly limited, this volume is the best comprehensive analysis of the issue of race which is the major “nerve” in the spinal cord of the history of the District.

Howard Gillette, Jr., Between Justice and Beauty; Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington, D.C., 1995.
 Dr. Gillette’s book surveys the entire history of congressional supervision of the District, focusing on the question whether this has helped or hurt the actual welfare of the District’s neighborhoods and communities.

*Kate Masur, An Example for All the Land – Emancipation and the Struggle Over Equality in Washington, D.C.,The University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
 This is first study of the Reconstruction in half a century. It combines political, social, and legal history and finds that Washington, D.C. was a laboratory for social policy and equality at a pivotal moment in American history. It is all the D.C. history you never knew.

Mark S. Greek, Washington, D.C. Protests – Scenes From Home Rule to The Civil Rights Movement, History Press, 2009.
 This is the story in pictures of the fight by D.C. residents over the past forty years for their democratic rights. [Tierra's note: This book is what gave me the idea for my dissertation. I'd bought it on a whim off Amazon and took it with me on a trip while I was taking a course called "The Long Civil Rights Movement." This book mixed in with the others, and when I confused the cover photo of a home rule protest with a civil rights rally, I first realized that in my hometown, home rule and civil rights were one and the same.]

David L. Lewis, District of Columbia, A Bicentennial History, WW. Norton & Company and the American Association for State and Local History, 1976. This book is part of the series on the states and the nation published for the national Bicentennial of the American Revolution.

Harry S. Jaffe and Tom Sherwood, Dream City – Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C., Simon & Schuster, 1994.
 This book tells the story of District of Columbia from the 1960′s and the fight for civil rights and home rule to the early 1990′s and the imposition of the Federal Control Board.  It specifically covers the years of Mayor Marion Barry.

*Need to get this!

Cribbed from http://www.mlkdchostcommittee.com/dc-statehood/district-of-columbia-reading-list/

the latest intro

So the last intro draft has been moved to my "Contribution to the Field" section. Here's the new intro:

While the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ensured that African-Americans would have the right to vote granted by the Fifteenth Amendment, this legislation did little for the voting prospects of the residents of the District of Columbia. Denied the right to elect their own local government or representatives to the U.S. Congress, Washingtonians of all races had only been allowed to vote for president the previous year, in the first presidential election since Congress passed the Twenty-Third Amendment. Although Washington had long been home to active movements for legislative autonomy from Congress and African-American civil rights, these movements remained largely separate until the District became a majority-minority city in the 1950s. Despite early civil rights successes in the 1940s and 1950s and agitation for District voting rights by national organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the desire for home rule remained largely unrealized until the late 1960s and early 1970s - after the alleged end of the civil rights movement. How did the city’s changing demographics and relationship with the national civil rights struggle impact the century-old battle for home rule and the city’s relationship with the U.S. Congress? How does the District of Columbia fit into the larger narrative of the black protest movement?