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New Columbia is the name of the U.S. state that would have been created by the admission of the District of Columbia to the Union as the 51st state according to a proposal initiated by Congress in 1978. Although the proposal eventually failed, the name remains part of the statehood movement in the District of Columbia. The proposal is considered the high-water mark in the long-running campaign for D.C. Statehood.
The movement for statehood was endorsed in a local, citywide initiative in 1980, following the 1978 proposal by the Congress of the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment. The provisional statehood constitution was adopted in 1982. The campaign stalled after the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment failed in 1985 because it did not receive the required ratification by the legislatures of 38 of the 50 states. Proposals in Congress to admit Washington, D.C. as the 51st state are introduced routinely in Congress but typically receive little action.
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