Page 29 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Washington, DC

THE HIST OR Y OF W ASHINGT ON , DC  27

Home Rule
Residents of the District of Columbia
have never been given full representation
in American politics, as they have no
congressman. Until the 23rd Amendment of
1961 they could not even vote for
president – the 1964 election was the
first in which they took part. In 1967,
with people clamoring for a greater say Mayor Bowser opening the 10th Anniversary Festival, 2015
in local government, President Lyndon
Soldiers on patrol after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Johnson replaced the system of three of much of his power and appointed a five-
commissioners, set up by Congress in person “financial control board” to oversee
1871, with an appointed mayor and a city the city’s affairs. The election in 1998 was
council with greater responsibility in policy won by Anthony Williams, an outsider who
and budget issues. The result was the city’s offered a fresh outlook and financial stability.
first elected mayor in over 100 years, Walter Congress returned to the mayor much of
E. Washington. Residents were permitted the authority it had taken away. Within
to elect a non-voting delegate to Congress months of taking his new office it appeared
in 1971, and the Home Rule Act of 1973 that Mayor Williams was turning the city
allowed the people to elect both mayor around. The budget was operating with a
and city council. surplus, the population had stabilized, and
In 1978 Marion Barry succeeded as mayor. unemployment was down.
Born in Mississippi and raised in Tennessee, A new administration under Adrian Fenty,
he came to Washington elected in 2006, transformed
in 1965 to work for civil the city’s image. No longer
rights. He was the city’s dub bed the crime capital
mayor for 16 of the next of the US, Washington, DC
20 years, but toward the has again become a mecca
end of his tenure, a large for tourists and a safer place
deficit and dissatisfaction for its residents. In 2010,
with city politics devel- Fenty was defea ted by
oped. Middle-class moderate democrat Vincent
families, both white Gray; in 2015, Gray was
and black, continued defeated by Muriel Bowser.
to flee the increasingly In 2009 Barack
crime-ridden city for the Obama became the
safety of the suburbs. first African-American
In 1995 Congress Fireworks lighting the Washington Monument president in US history –
stripped the mayor during the 2000 celebrations a momentous occasion.

1993 Opening of President Bill 2005 George W. 2011 Rare 5.8 magnitude earthquake hits DC
the US Holocaust Clinton Bush inaugurated 2012 Barack Obama re-elected for a second term
Memorial Museum (b.1946) for a second term as president
as US president
2015 Muriel Bowser elected mayor
1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
2010 Vincent 2014 Mayor Vincent
2001 September 11 Gray elected Gray defeated in the
Terrorist attack on mayor Democratic primary
the Pentagon
2009 Barack Obama becomes the
first African-American president

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