Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), the District of Columbia’s non-voting Representative in Congress, was honored by the University on Martin Luther King Jr. day for her continuous efforts for civil rights, and said that she will keep working until D.C. residents gain full representation in Congress.
Georgetown University awarded Norton with the “John Thompson Legacy of a Dream Award”—given each year to a person or group who has worked for justice—during Monday night’s “Let Freedom Ring” Concert, held annually at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to honor King’s legacy.
University President John DeGioia, who presented Norton with the award, praised her work towards ending the genocide in Darfur, attempting to gain full voting rights for D.C.’s Representative in Congress and helping King’s civil rights movement, for which she helped to organize the March on Washington in 1963.
Currently, Representative Norton can only vote on bills in House committees—she cannot vote on a bill before the full House.
“She works hard every single day advocating for the enfranchisement of the people she represents,” DeGioia said. “She made impressive progress last year by passing legislation for voting representation in the House of Representatives.”
The legislation, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007, failed in the Senate on September 18 when it received only 57 votes in favor of ending debate, falling short of the minimum 60 Senators needed to put the bill to a vote.
After accepting the award, Norton said that she now had a greater responsibility to live up to King’s ideals, especially in her fight for D.C. Congressional voting rights.
“Dr. King, of course, understood what it means to have a 57-vote majority in the Senate for D.C. voting rights and still have it fail,” Norton said.
“What [being honored] does is it essentially gives you some marching orders to do a lot more to carry on the ideals that Coach Thompson and Martin Luther King have lived,” Norton said. “In my case, voting rights for the District of Columbia is the most obvious and the one that is clearest.”
Norton said that she plans to try again to get the voting rights bill passed in the Senate. Noting that some Georgetown students lobbied for the bill last year while it was under Senate consideration, she called on them to redouble their efforts to pass the bill.
“I think that receiving the award puts Georgetown in a position to say that the Congress has work to do to fulfill, to live up to the memory of Dr. King well beyond naming a holiday in his honor,” Norton said. “You’ve got a bill before you that will do him the greatest honor.”
