Hawaii Admission Act
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The Admission Act, formally An Act to Provide for the Admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union (Pub.L. 86-3, enacted 1959-03-18) is a statute enacted by the United States Congress and signed by President of the United States Dwight Eisenhower which dissolved the Territory of Hawaii and established the State of Hawaii as the fiftieth state of the Union.
Because the document extended all the rights afforded to American citizens to a territory that had a non-white majority, the Act is considered the first civil rights legislation passed by the post-World War II Congress.[citation needed]
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[edit] Hawai‘i Statehood and International Law
Since Hawai‘i was a Territory of the United States in 1945, the United Nations in 1946 listed Hawai‘i as a non-self-Governing territory under the administration of the United States (Resolution 55(I) of 1946-12-14). Also listed as non-self-governing territories under the jurisdiction of the United States were Alaska Territory, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[edit] UN Obligations United States had to Hawai‘i (1946-1959)
Between 1946 and 1959, the United States had: 1) a "sacred trust" obligation to the "inhabitants" of Hawai‘i 2) an annual reporting obligation to the General Assembly.
America transmitted annual reports on Hawai‘i to the United Nations Secretary General from 1946 until September 1959. By a letter of September 17, 1959, the United States notified the U.N. Secretary General that Hawai‘i had become a State of the Union in August 1959 and that the United States would thereafter cease to transmit information to the United Nations.
[edit] U.S. Violations of International Trust Obligations to the Nation of Hawai‘i
On November 27, 1953, the Fourth Committee of the U.N. General Assembly passed Resolution 742. This resolution was entitled "Factors which should be taken into account in deciding whether a Territory is or is not a Territory whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government." Part I of the Resolution identified "Factors indicative of the attainment of Independence." Part II of the Resolution listed factors indicative of the attainment of "other separate systems of self-government." Part II of the Resolution addressed factors indicative of the Free Association of the territory as an integrate part of that country.
[edit] Debate and controversy
The acceptance of statehood for Hawaii was not without its share of controversy. Various bills of admission were stalled in Congressional hearings since the early 1900s because of the racial prejudices of many members of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate. There was a fear of establishing a state that was governed by an ethnic minority, namely the large Asian American population. Lawmakers questioned the American patriotism of Hawaii residents. Upon the election of John A. Burns from the Hawaii Democratic Party as delegate of the Territory of Hawaii to Congress, southern leaders charged that Burns' election was evidence of Hawaii as a haven for communism.
[edit] Southern lawmakers
Burns was involved in vigorous lobbying of his colleagues persuading them that the race-based objections were unfair and charges that Communist Party sympathizers controlled Hawaii were blatant lies. Burns worked especially hard with the southerners, led by Lyndon Johnson, who blocked the various Hawaii statehood bills. Upon leaving her seat as delegate from Hawaii, Elizabeth P. Farrington said, "Of course, Lyndon Johnson was no friend of statehood." She cited Johnson's fear that Hawaii would send representatives and senators to Congress who would oppose segregation. Farrington added, "There were 22 times when he voted against us. He did everything he could, because he was representing the Southern racial opposition."
[edit] Plantation owners
Statehood was supported by members of the Hawaii Republican Party, controlled by powerful sugarcane plantation owners like the Big Five. The 1934 Jones-Costigan Act, which was a part of the New Deal agricultural policies, placed Hawaiian sugar interests at odds with federal legislation. Thus, by 1935, the Republican-controlled Territorial legislature established the Hawaii Equal Rights Commission as a means to challenge any federal discrimination against Hawaii but to also initiate discussions about Hawaii statehood.
[edit] Voting
A mixed vote in the population of anyone who resided in Hawaii over a year, showed approval rates of at least 93% by voters on all major islands (see adjacent figure for details). Of the approximately 140,000 votes cast, less than 8000 rejected the Admission Act of 1959.
[edit] August 19, 2006
On the morning of August 19, 2006, state Representative Barbara Marumoto, dressed as the Statue of Liberty, and state Senator Sam Slom, waving a large American flag, led a group of around fifty people to celebrate the admission of Hawai‘i as the 50th state at ‘Iolani Palace—the site where statehood was declared nearly forty-seven years earlier. This group’s state-sponsored commemoration, however, was blocked by Hawaiian grassroots activists, also estimated at around fifty, who were angered at Marumoto and Slom’s decision to hold the celebration on palace grounds, the site where the U.S. supported overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom had also taken place 113 years earlier. Carrying Hawaiian nationalist flags and signs that read “Kanaka Maoli Independence” protestors argued that ‘Iolani Palace “is a sacred spot, which is the seat of our government” and demanded that the statehood celebration take place next door at the state capitol. The two groups clashed when the statehood celebrators continued with their program and began to sing the “Star Spangled Banner,” without accompaniment from the Kalani high school band that decided to leave the event and not get involved. The Hawaiian group countered by using a public address system to interrupt the U.S. national anthem. Verbal arguments and near-physical confrontations followed and continued for over an hour until the statehood group, tired and frustrated, decided to disperse.[citation needed]
[edit] External links
- An Act to Provide for the Admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union (Act of March 18, 1959, Pub L 86-3, § 1, 73 Stat 4)
- USC 48 Ch 3, S. 3 HAWAII
