Victory for D.C.

The scene in the packed Senate galleries looked almost like a replay of the great civil rights celebrations of the 1960s. Black leaders, including Martin Luther King Sr., Coretta King, Urban League Director Vernon Jordan and N.A.A.C.P. Chief Benjamin Hooks, applauded, cheered and embraced. With one vote to spare, the Senate last week approved, 67 to 32, a constitutional amendment that would give the District of Columbia two Senators and one or two Representatives, depending on the outcome of the 1980 census. Already passed by the House, the bill now heads to the states for ratification.

The amendment is the latest in a series of efforts to win political independence for the District that was carved out of Maryland and Virginia in 1791. Only in 1961 did Washingtonians finally get the right to vote in presidential elections. In 1971 they were able to elect a nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives, Walter Fauntroy. In 1974 they achieved a degree of home rule with an elected mayor, Walter Washington, and a city council.

In a debate that often sounded like a seminar in American history, opponents of the amendment argued that it would violate the founding fathers' desire for a federal enclave free of partisan politics. Instead, they said, it would give even greater power to entrenched federal bureaucrats. In addition, they complained that the rights of a state would be given to a city. Other objections were unstated, at least in public. The District, complained cloakroom critics, suffered from the "four too's": too black, too liberal, too Democratic, too urban. Nor has home rule proved an unmixed blessing. Mayor Washington's administration has been marred by inefficiency and scandal.

Supporters, led by Ted Kennedy, insisted that the District is as worthy of national representation as several states. Seven states, in fact, have fewer residents than the District's 700,000; eleven pay less federal income tax; ten had fewer men killed in Viet Nam. Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd referred to the District's status as "conscription without representation." While conservative Republicans generally opposed the measure, Democratic liberals strongly favored it. There were some notable exceptions, however. Two G.O.P. presidential hopefuls--Howard Baker and Robert Dole--voted aye. So did onetime Segregationist Strom Thurmond, who needs every black vote he can get in a close reelection campaign in South Carolina. "Thurmond came over," said Civil Rights Activist Joseph Rauh, "and that was the vote that really made the difference."

The toughest fight for the amendment lies ahead. It must be ratified by 38 state legislatures within seven years, a time limit set by Congress. Democratic supporters did not take issue with Republican Opponent Jesse Helms, who claimed that the ratification struggle over the District amendment would make the Equal Rights Amendment battle "look like a Cakewalk."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.