Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

This Emancipation Day, Mayor Muriel Bowser has a present for the city: a ballot initiative for D.C. statehood.

While the city commemorates the date when Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in the District of Columbia, it has become a de facto statehood holiday/protest.

“As we celebrate Emancipation Day, we honor the many champions who have fought for equality and civil rights throughout our history,” Bowser said in a statement. “Each year, we use this historic moment to renew our push for full democracy and statehood for the residents of the District of Columbia. We will not stop until we achieve full statehood.”

The mayor kicked off this year’s events with a “Full Democracy Champions Breakfast,” where she announced plans to propose legislation that would put statehood on the November ballot.

Direct votes have proven successful—both Initiative 71, the ballot initiative that proposed the legalization of marijuana, and the 2013 budget autonomy referendum overwhelmingly passed. But neither had a smooth path from there, thanks to the District’s political limbo. Congress curbed the city’s ability to regulate pot and it took three years for budget autonomy to wend its way through the court system (D.C.’s attorney general and CFO argued it violated federal law).

Despite a children song, raps, flag tattoos, national lobbying, a liberty pole, a PAC, and John Oliver clips, it seems unlikely that a Republican-controlled Congress would just let statehood slip on by. Still according to The Washington Post, Bowser has something of a plan:

Aides to Bowser said a broader push for statehood would follow a process known as the “Tennessee model.” When Tennessee was admitted to the union as the 16th state, it was a federal territory, much like the nation’s capital. Congress agreed to allow Tennessee to become a state without ratification by the existing states. Instead, it required a vote of residents in the territory to approve a state constitution and a pledge to form a republic-style government.

Bowser’s administration has been working to update a constitution approved by D.C. voters in 1982 for just such a state. That petition, submitted by then-Mayor Marion Barry, was ignored by Congress.

The actual anniversary of Lincoln signing the DC Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 is on the 16th, but because it falls on Saturday this year, the legal holiday is observed today—causing the IRS to push back the filing deadline for taxes to April 18. The confluence of Tax Day and Emancipation Day also pushed back filing deadlines in years past, to April 17, 2007 and April 18, 2011.

Still most other highlights of Emancipation Day festivities are tomorrow, including a parade (from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Pennsylvania Avenue), a “truck touch” (kids can come peer into municipal vehicles at 1:30 p.m. on the 1300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue), a concert (starting at 2:45 p.m. in Freedom Plaza), and fireworks (around 9 p.m.) More events can be found here.

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