New Columbia

New Columbia was the name a proposed U.S. state that would have been created by the admission of the District of Columbia to the Union as the 51st state. The proposal is considered the high-water mark in the long-running campaign for D.C. Statehood.

The proposal for the state was approved in a local initiative in 1980, following the passage by the United States Congress of the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment in 1978. The provisional constitution for the state was adopted in 1982. The campaign stalled after the D.C. Voting Rights Amendment failed in 1985 because it did not receive the required ratification of 38 statess. Proposal in Congress to admit D.C. as the 51st state are introduced routinely in Congress but typically receive little action.