D.C. mayor uses march rally to call for statehood
8/28/2013WASHINGTON — District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray has used the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington to call for statehood for the district’s 632,000 residents.
Gray says Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy is unfulfilled because the residents of the nation’s capital are denied full participation in democracy.
Gray noted in a brief speech at the Lincoln Memorial today that the district has more residents than two states — Vermont and Wyoming. He also says the city pays $3.5 billion a year in federal taxes but can’t spend local tax dollars without approval by Congress.
He called on participants in the march to “let freedom ring” from locations around the city.