I am a Black woman living in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., and an historic event is taking place in my hometown this week.

In June 2020, Vice President Joe Biden promised to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court of the United States. President Biden has done just that by nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to that judicially supreme seat on the highest court in the land.

This is an historic first! Never in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court has such a nomination occurred!

As a Black woman, I can remember the great pride I experienced in the decisions by, and performance of, Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall while on the court and the exquisite disappointment I felt in the conservative stances taken by his successor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

The nomination of Judge Jackson – a Black woman and a native Washingtonian – is a great break in that proverbial “glass ceiling.” I should be more joyful, but I cannot fully participate in the celebration. I do not feel all the pride I should for Judge Jackson’s nomination because the Constitution requires that the United States Senate’s role in the process is to give advice and consent on the president's nomination. As a D.C. resident, I have no voice. I play no role in the process because I have no VOTING SENATORS to speak for me and cast votes.

I am very aware that we are locked out of this historic consequential vote. Yet again, D.C. residents have no say and play no role in our so-called democracy. And I have heard no mention or discussion of our unique political situation.

I heard the impassioned speech of U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on television, but he made no such observation. I was devastated by Senator Booker's omission, as he has been a strong D.C. statehood supporter.

Our lack of citizenship rights affects all aspects of our lives, and our omission from the Union must be properly noted in order to end it once and for all.

We must demand D.C. statehood now, so that we are no longer by-standers of history in the making.

ANISE JENKINS, Executive Director
Stand Up! for Democracy in D.C. (FREE D.C.)
March 21, 2022