Six-year-old Mary “Dodie” Brown holds a copy of the 1959 special Hawaii statehood edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
George Bacon/Hawaii State Archives
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George Bacon/Hawaii State Archives
When Arthur Roland Kam thinks back to 1959, he remembers how everyone around him felt a huge political shift as Hawaii became the country’s 50th state.
“For a Hawaiian citizen, it was great because it had been a long time coming,” Kam describes. He was 28 years old, working for Pan Am on the island of Oahu.
“It was a big moment in my lifetime, to know that we are part of the union now,” he says of the pride he felt. “To me, it was a moment to cherish. Now, we have a star on the flag. And that star is Hawaii.”
But as the years have passed, many Hawaiians began to mark August 21, the anniversary of statehood, with solemnity, reflecting on the history of the United States’ seizure and colonization of the Independent Kingdom of Hawai’i.
“There were benefits and protections that came with statehood, but there’s still a painful aspect to the whole history of Hawaii and its overthrow, annexation and statehood,” says Sen. Maisie Hirono, D-Hawaii. “There are a lot of people who do not consider [today] as a time of celebration because of the painful history,” she adds.
Hawaii’s journey to statehood was a complicated one, marked by a series of political calculations and maneuverings in Congress that were amplified by undercurrents — and very often overt displays — of racism.
That story resonates today in the political disputes over the prospect for statehood for the District of Columbia, which has faded from headlines but not disappeared entirely after a push by House Democrats earlier this year.
They called it an issue of justice and fairness; Republicans called it an attempted power grab.
Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., for example, said this month that she worries that if Joe Biden is elected president and Democrats gain a governing majority, they’ll try to make states of D.C. and Puerto Rico. McSally implied the territories’ racial makeup would mean they’d likely be easy seats for Democrats to keep and hold.
“We’d never get the Senate back again,” McSally said of the GOP.
Hawaii’s fraught path to statehood
Race and its implications often are subplots in a state’s accession.
In 1893, the monarchy of Hawaii, under Queen Lili’uokalani, was overthrown by white settlers. Five years later, the U.S. annexed Hawaii despite local opposition and protests.
Petitions for statehood began in the first twenty years of Hawaii’s territorial status, a process that intensified during the 1930s when sugar interests were threatened by Congressional legislation and the powerful sugar lobby got behind the statehood cause.
“The pressure from within Hawaii for annexation was from an economic elite of Europeans and European Americans seeking economic, political and military protection,” says Roger Bell, author of “Last Among Equals,” which documents the history of Hawaii’s path to statehood.
“The criteria for statehood the Congress imposes include that the population of the territory seeking statehood must demonstrate that they are sympathetic to and imbued with the principles of what Congress called ‘American democracy,'” Bell explains. “In other words, that they were Americanized politically and culturally.”
During World War II, Hawaii’s majority nonwhite population was regarded with suspicion, asked to demonstrate its loyalty to the United States over Japan. But fears over disloyalty faded after the war, in part because of the heroic efforts of the Japanese-American-led 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Former Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner presents the Congressional Gold Medal to Susumu Ito of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an Army unit comprised of Japanese Americans from Hawaii which became the most decorated unit for its size and service.
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Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images
Statehood efforts accelerated again following the war, but not without new political and racial roadblocks.
In the mid-1950s, Hawaii shifted from being Republican to largely Democratic, which prompted Democrats to increase their push for statehood efforts for both Hawaii and Alaska, another Democratic territory, hoping to boost influence in the Senate by four votes.
Senators from the south flatly rejected statehood.
“The profile of Hawaii racially and culturally was a threat to the rigid patterns of race relations in the American South and to the southern way of life, which was a euphemism, of course, for protecting segregation,” Bell describes.
Some senators were transparent about their motivations in keeping the prospective state out of the union.
Admission of Hawaii would mean “two votes for socialized medicines, two votes for government ownership of industry, two votes against all racial segregation and two votes against the South on all social matters,” said Sen. James Eastland, D-Miss.
A group of supporters of statehood drive through the street in Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, on March 13, 1959.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Perhaps we should become the United States of the Pacific and finally should become the United States of the Orient,” said Sen. George Smathers, D-Fla.
Efforts stalled, which frustrated then-President Harry Truman, who observed privately that many southerners “still have that antebellum pro-slavery outlook.”
“The main difficulty with the South is that they are living eighty years behind the times and the sooner they come out of it, the better it will be for the country and themselves,” he wrote in a 1948 letter.
Seven months before it would officially become a state, the Republican County Committee in Hawaii sent petitions to Congress for statehood.
“Our people have willingly and patriotically accepted and complied with any and all national requests, mandates or patriotic obligations required from all American citizens; be it in peace, or in war,” it reminded Congress.
President Dwight Eisenhower helps unfurl the new 50-star flag on Aug. 21, 1959 after signing a proclamation making Hawaii the 50th state of the union. At right is Daniel K. Inouye, Democratic congressman-elect from Hawaii.
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Byron Rollins/AP
In 1959, President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation making Hawaii America’s 50th state.
It wasn’t until 1993 that the “Apology Resolution” passed in Congress, which “apologizes to Natives Hawaiians … for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii … and the deprivation of the rights of native Hawaiians to self-determination.”
Not just Hawaii
Before the Civil War, two states were generally admitted to the union at the same time in order to prevent one party, and thereby the divided north and south, from gaining a political advantage.
“You had, up through the 1850s, this idea of balancing: that one state would come in as a free state and one state would come in as a slave state,” says Paul Frymer, professor of politics at Princeton University and author of “Building an American Empire.”
Following the Civil War, the dominant Republican Party looked westward to seize land and break it into states they believed would be Republican.
In what Frymer describes as one of the “biggest hang-ups at the end of the 19th century,” the last two states on the continent – New Mexico and Arizona – vied for statehood.
“Arizona was always settled by more whites than New Mexico was,” Frymer explains. “They both pushed for statehood, but there was more support for Arizona. And here you see both partisan politics, with two parties fighting over what would constitute a state, and then racial politics.”
Much of the statehood debate over New Mexico, which had joined the U.S. as a territory in 1850, hinged on race.
“The conversation in Congress was, ‘Was the state white? Was there a majority white population? Was there a large enough white population that spoke English?’ All of these types of terminology were applied to what was largely an indigenous and formerly Mexican population,” Frymer says.
Republican Sen. Lot Morril of Maine went so far as to call New Mexico’s residents “Indians — the men that we hunt when we have nothing else to do in the summer season.”
Statehood for New Mexico failed to pass until 1912, when Congress felt satisfied the population was “American” enough.
Will there ever be more stars on the flag?
Puerto Rico’s governor’s race in November may bring with it a renewed effort to embrace statehood efforts. Former congressional representative Pedro Pierluisi defeated Gov. Wanda Vázquez in the primary election and is a supporter of statehood.
But strong Republican opposition in Congress and the White House dooms any movement on that legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told TV host Laura Ingraham last year that any Democratic push for D.C. statehood is “full-bore socialism on the march in the House,” a comment that critics felt hearkened back to justifications for keeping Hawaii out of the union.
President Trump has been even more explicit about his reasons for opposing D.C. statehood, telling The New York Post: “Why? So we can have two more Democratic — Democrat senators and five more congressmen? No, thank you. That’ll never happen.”
A day before the House passed the legislation, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, issued a speech on the Senate floor categorizing statehood efforts as a power grab by Democrats and seemingly dismissing the value of District residents.
“Yes, Wyoming is smaller than Washington by population, but it has three times as many workers in mining, logging and construction, and 10 times as many workers in manufacturing,” Cotton said. “In other words, Wyoming is a well-rounded working-class state.”
His comments prompted outrage on social media, with many pointing out the civil rights implications of the district’s lack of representation. The city has been majority-minority since the 1950s and of its over 705,000 residents, 46% are Black.
But Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., says he views the push for statehood as purely political.
“If your interest is solely to be able to vote for representatives in Congress, you could have retrocession occur,” he says, referencing small efforts in recent years to cede the city’s land back to Maryland, a plan that would not change the number of senators.
“I think the most telling political thing is that when the retrocession bill to Maryland was introduced 10 years ago in Congress, no Democrats co-sponsored it, which belies the fact that the goal is a political goal, because if the goal was just representation then retrocession to Maryland would work,” Harris says.
Harris says even if Democrats win back the Senate and the White House this November, D.C. statehood is far from guaranteed.
“The constitutionality would immediately be argued,” he says. “I think the Supreme Court will ultimately agree that this is an issue of changing the Constitution because the federal capital city is described in the Constitution and the authorities over that capital city.”
It’s the kind of opposition Sen. Hirono expects.
“I think there will be a lot of Republican resistance to having any state that will create more seats that would go Democratic,” she says. “Especially now in this much divided political environment.”
Frymer, of Princeton, says if the tables were turned, and D.C. was a Republican stronghold, it’s unlikely the Democratic party would be rushing to grant statehood.
“No party wants one state to come in that’s going to boost the other party. That’s why historically, both parties have looked for some type of balance,” he says.
“To me, this is one of those issues that historically will be resolved. The pressure is going to continue to build and build over time. The question is, when will the moment occur that the United States finally embraces it?”
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
