The journey to statehood for Hawaii was an exceptionally long one. All the way back in 1937, a congressional committee found that Hawaii met all qualifications for state hood and voted to send the bill to the House. Things were progressing fine until the attack on Pearl Harbor when all talks paused, and the Japanese population came under suspicion by the U.S. government. After the war, the battle for statehood resumed, but for years the vote for statehood was held up by communist concerns of the conservatives and anti-Truman sentiment among some Democrats in the Senate. Ultimately, statehood for Hawaii would not come until 1959. After the statehood bill stalled during the final years of the Truman administration, there was renewed hope that President Eisenhower and a new Republican majority would bring statehood for Hawaii.
Three years before Eisenhower was inaugurated, on March 7, 1950, the US House voted to admit Hawaii into the union. The vote was bipartisan with about 2/3 of the Democrats joining a larger proportion of Republicans to pass the bill, but, opponents in the Senate held up the bill in committee. Objections were raised by conservatives over the refusal of the Democratic party to expel fifteen delegates who invoked the Fifth Amendment during a hearing of un-American activities that took place at the 1950 Hawaii Democratic Convention. Conservatives argued that the Communists would have a say in who is appointed governor, while liberal civil rights activists rebutted that the real issue was Anti-Asian racism. Despite the late ending of the U.S. Senate session, the bill was never brought to a vote in part because the conservatives had an upper hand during an election year. The liberal Democrats were already electorally vulnerable on the communist issue and they did not want to give the conservatives any chance to exploit it.
The 1950 mid-term elections saw the Democrats gain control of both the House and the Democrats, but the politics of non-action continued. All eyes were now on the Senate where conservatives continued to threaten a filibuster in 1951 to avert a debate. Later, in 1952, Democrats wanted to push for statehood in both Alaska and Hawaii together, but Republicans with the help of Democrats who opposed the Truman administration, easily defeated those efforts since there was even less support for Alaska statehood in the Senate. In 1952, Hawaii still leaned Republican, and Alaska was decidedly Democratic. The Senate was willing to consider a bill that would admit Hawaii only, but the Democratic controlled House would not introduce any bill that considered Hawaii alone.
In 1952, Republicans inserted into their platform a commitment to the immediate statehood of Hawaii and there was new hope with a new Republican president and a swing toward the Republicans in Congress. After the election, in 1953 the Republicans now controlled both the House and the Senate, and President Eisenhower was expected to schedule a debate for both Alaska and Hawaii. In Eisenhower's first State of the Union Address in February 1953 he did as expected and urged the immediate consideration of statehood for Hawaii.
"Most of these particular resource problems pertain to the Department of the Interior. Another of its major concerns is our country's island possessions. Here, one matter deserves attention. The platforms of both political parties promised immediate statehood.to Hawaii. The people of that Territory have earned that status. Statehood should be granted promptly with the first election scheduled for 1954."
Ultimately, it would take another six years before President Eisenhower signed a bill and Hawaii would become a state. That will be the subject of my next post.
References
"Annual Message To The Congress On The State Of The Union | The American Presidency Project". Presidency.Ucsb.Edu, 2021, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/annual-message-the-congress-the-state-the-union-16."Hawaii’s Long Road To Statehood". Pieces Of History, 2021, https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2017/08/21/hawaiis-long-road-to-statehood/.
"Republican Party Platform Of 1952 | The American Presidency Project". Presidency.Ucsb.Edu, 2021, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1952.
Bell, Roger J. Last Among Equals. University Of Hawaii Press, 1984, pp. 133-230.
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