No taxation without representation was the slogan that led to a revolution, yet it is still happening in our country today. The people of the District of Columbia pay more federal taxes than those in 22 other states and pay more to the federal government than they receive in services.

Yet, those residents -- who are mostly Black and brown and members of frontline communities -- are denied the most basic tenet that founded our country: Representation.

D.C. residents bear all the responsibilities of full U.S. citizenship—they serve on juries, in the U.S. military, and work hard to build safe, strong communities where they live. And yet, the more than 700,000 people who call D.C. home have no vote on any decisions our Congress makes every day.

This is a fundamental civil rights issue. The campaign against DC statehood is a ferocious attempt to disenfranchise the Black vote. D.C. is a historically Black city and Black people still make up 47% of the population.

What’s more, without statehood, D.C. residents have no voting representation in Congress, even though Congress exerts undue power over those residents.

While the Senate turns their attention to voting rights, they cannot guarantee equality at the ballot box until they grant the residents of D.C. the statehood they deserve to be a part of the democratic process. This lack of representation is the single largest case of voter suppression in our country. It’s past time this great injustice be righted.

Sign and send the petition: Congress must stop denying representation to hundreds of thousands of American citizens. The time for D.C. statehood is NOW!