How is it that exactly fifty years later history is again repeating itself, playing out the events of 1958 with Alaska’s and Hawaii’s race towards statehood– but this time, in 2008– the race is for the White House.
McCain’s unexpected choice for veep, Alaska governor Sarah Palin, is peculiar for a number of reasons and is speculatively a calculation by McCain to compete with Obama for women voters, young voters, swing voters, and assert the kind of media attention that attempts to distract viewers from the success of the Democratic National Convention. Having said that, by choosing Palin as his running mate, McCain appears to be on the defensive, counter-maneuvering Obama’s popularity.
McCain’s choice of Palin, the governor of Alaska, tells another story of a particularly auspicious era for Alaska and Hawaii: the statehood era. Since Alaska adopted its Organic Act in 1884, and Hawaii adopted its Organic Act in 1900, the Senate Interior Committee at various times separately heard arguments for statehood. In 1946, by which time the Senate Committee of Insular Affairs took up the Statehood question, both the territories of Hawaii and Alaska had independently been the subjects of intense debate in both the Senate and the House on the issue of statehood.
In 1955, George Lehleitner a politically well connected ex-Navy man and New Orleans businessman convinced the people of Alaska to adopt the Tennessee Plan, a plan in which states petitioning for statehood would write their own Constitution and elect their own representatives to Congress. Historically this is how Tennessee became part of the Union in 1798, and how Michigan, California, Oregon, Kansas and Iowa were later admitted without an enabling act from Congress. In 1956, Alaska presented its Constitution and representatives to Congress. Hawaii had already written its Constitution in 1949, ten years before Statehood.
In 1953, the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee combined the Hawaii and Alaska Bills and on March 11, 1954, the Senate narrowly passed the motion.
Senate Bill 49, also called the Hawaii-Alaska Bill, was introduced as an alternative proposition to gain statehood for both states that had not received full favor from Congress. Hawaii at that time was considered to be a Republican territory because historically Hawaii had mostly Republican governors appointed by the President, as well as Republican legislatures, although that had changed with the “Democratic Revolution” in 1954 when for the first time, Hawaii had elected a Democratic territorial legislature. Alaska on the other hand, was considered to be a Democratic territory. The Southern Democrats, voting as a bloc, had been actively voting against Hawaii’s inclusion as a state for several reasons, one because Democrats did not want to submit two Republican senators to throw off the voting balance between Democrat and Republican, and also, because the Southern Democrats involved in their own anti-civil rights struggle, did not want the inclusion of two minorities into Congress, which Hawaii, being primarily and ethnically non-white, might include.
By the strange twists of history, President Eisenhower and Speaker-of-the-House, Sam Rayburn, both Republicans, tried to stop the merger of a Hawaii/Alaska bill. Eisenhower was publicly unsupportive of Alaskan statehood while he pushed for immediate statehood for Hawaii. Many suspect that Eisenhower’s support was based on political partisanship.
Originally it was determined that Hawaii would be the 49th state and Alaska the 50th. However, it is debated that Alaska was brought up for a vote in the Senate before Hawaii because of the civil rights issue.
On January 3, 1959, President Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Bill, officially declaring Alaska the 49th state while Eisenhower proclaimed Hawaii as the 50th state on August 21st 1959.
The race now between Obama and Palin is suggestive of the events 50 years ago when Hawaii and Alaska were racing towards statehood. Currently, Alaska is celebrating its 50th anniversary since it was in 1958 that Congress had passed the Statehood bill, and next year Hawaii will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. This year will prove to be a momentous year for both Hawaii and Alaska, drawing attention to not only the history of statehood, but also to the current issues of indigenous peoples rights and federalist land-struggles– controversial issues for both Hawaii and Alaska– greeting us as we enter like twin stars into the spotlight.
