Fifty Years of Statehood – Hawaii Celebrates the Anniversary
It is hard to believe that it was just 50 years ago when Hawaii officially became a part of the United States of America. The road leading up to Statehood was a bit bumpy, with many opposing political views, but eventually it happened on August 21, 1959.
The Petition
An important event leading up to Statehood took place in 1954 when proponents of Statehood collected 150,000 signatures on a 3-mile-long petition on a huge roll of blank newsprint. They presented the petition on Bishop Street in Honolulu, and were backed by Hawaii’s delegates to Congress including John Anthony Burns and Joseph Rider Farrington.
The Statehood Movement
After World War II ended in 1945 and Republican corporate interests began to dominate Hawaii’s economy, the Statehood Movement grew. The dominant sugar firms controlled basically everything, and these were the Big Five: “Castle & Cooke, American Factors (Amfac), C. Brewer & Co, Theo H. Davies, and Alexander & Baldwin.
Constitutional Convention
On April 4, 1950, a constitutional convention was convened. Soon a state constitution was presented to the US Congress and then it was put to Hawaii’s voters on November 7, 1950, passing by a 3-1 margin.
In 1958, Alaska became a state, and this helped the Hawaiian statehood movement – it was now just a matter of time.
The US Senate approved Statehood in March of 1959, as did the House of Representatives, and it was signed by President Eisenhower on March 18, 1959.
A plebiscite of Hawaiian residents was required for approval, and this took place on June 27, 1959 when Hawaii residents approved Statehood, and the plebiscite passed 17 to 1, opposed only by Niihau. At this time there were about one-quarter million visitors coming to the Hawaiian Islands each year, and more than 600,000 residents.
On July 28, 1959, William Francis Quinn was elected as Hawaii’s governor. The first senators were Hiram Fong and Ethelbert Long, and Daniel K. Inouye became the first person of Japanese ancestry to be elected to the US House of Representatives.
The Statehood Proclamation was signed by President Eisenhower on August 21, 1959 – Hawaii was officially a state.