Alaska statehood
Alaska's journey to statehood began with the U.S. purchase of the territory from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, often referred to as "Seward's Folly." Initially governed by the U.S. Navy and later designated as a civil district, Alaska faced various governance challenges as its population grew, especially during gold rushes in the late 19th century. The territory officially gained legislative representation in 1912, setting the stage for future statehood efforts. Following World War II, significant political activism emerged, with territorial leaders like Edward Lewis "Bob" Bartlett advocating for statehood.
By the mid-1950s, Alaskans organized constitutional conventions and engaged in lobbying efforts, culminating in a successful 1958 referendum. On January 3, 1959, President Eisenhower signed the proclamation making Alaska the 49th state, a significant milestone in overcoming historical colonial governance. The transition to statehood brought both opportunities and challenges, particularly concerning Native land ownership and federal regulations. Alaskan statehood symbolizes a complex narrative of political struggle, community activism, and the pursuit of self-determination.
Alaska statehood
The Event Alaska became the forty-ninth state in the Union
Date January 3, 1959
The decades-long struggle for Alaska statehood ended in 1959 with the admission of the region, allowing Alaskans to participate fully in national political processes.
On March 30, 1867, United States secretary of state William H. Seward signed an agreement with the Russian minister to the United States to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million. Congress enacted legislation in 1868 to make Alaska, nicknamed “Seward’s Folly,” a customs district of the United States. From 1879 until 1884, the U.S. Navy governed Alaska. The passage of the First Organic Act in 1884 made Alaska a civil and judicial district of the United States and provided the territory with judges, clerks, and marshals. At that time, Alaska was considered a colony of the United States.
The Klondike gold rush of 1897-1898 and smaller gold rushes during the last decade of the nineteenth century brought tens of thousands of new inhabitants to Alaska and the Yukon Territory in Canada. In 1900, President William McKinley called for legislative action to provide for more government in the territory. His efforts resulted in legislation that provided for an official code of civil and criminal procedure and appointed more judges in the territory. In 1912, Congress passed the Second Organic Act, making Alaska an official territory and establishing a territorial legislature. The first statehood bill was introduced in Congress by Alaska delegate James Wickersham in 1916. During World War II, the population of Alaska grew as a result of military activity.
Postwar Alaska
In 1945, Edward Lewis “Bob” Bartlett was elected territorial delegate to Congress, Alaska’s only representative in Washington, D.C. Between 1943 and 1953, Alaska’s territorial governor, Ernest Gruening, and Delegate Bartlett, working with business and professional men and women in the territory, labored on numerous legislative efforts to achieve statehood for Alaska. A successful referendum in 1946 led to the formation of the Alaska Statehood Association. President Harry S. Truman called on Congress to grant statehood to Alaska in his first state of the union message in 1946. Bartlett introduced a statehood bill in 1948, but it never came to the Senate floor.
In 1949, the Alaska Statehood Committee was formed to intensify statehood efforts. The committee was able to draw national attention to the goals of those Alaskans who desired statehood. A statehood bill passed the House of Representatives in early 1950, but it was killed in the U.S. Senate by a coalition of conservative Republicans and southern Democrats. Republicans feared that Democrats would make up Alaska’s first congressional delegation. The Korean War, begun in 1950, overshadowed the statehood drive.
In 1953, the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee traveled to Alaska to hold hearings on statehood. Meeting in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Ketchikan, the committee heard from hundreds of Alaskans. The committee hearings resulted in the organization of the Operation Statehood movement. Alaskan women sent bouquets of artificial forget-me-nots, Alaska’s official flower, to members of Congress. Ordinary Alaskans wrote letters to members of Congress and letters to the editors of big-city newspapers. They sent Christmas cards to their friends in the contiguous United States that read:
Make our future bright
President Dwight D. Eisenhower called on Congress to grant statehood to Hawaii in his 1954 state of the union address, but he failed to mention Alaska. Congress developed legislation calling for Hawaii’s admission first followed by that of Alaska. However, a new plan called for not admitting the territories but making Hawaii and Alaska commonwealths of the United States instead, giving them the power to elect their own governors. Alaskans opposed this proposal because it would require them to pay federal income taxes without receiving any of the benefits of statehood.
The “Alaska-Tennessee Plan”
Meeting in Juneau in January of 1955, Alaska’s territorial legislature called for a constitutional convention to meet in November, 1955, on the campus of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. On the second day of the convention, territorial governor Ernest Gruening delivered the keynote address, “Let Us End American Colonialism.” The convention wrote a constitution that Alaskans overwhelmingly approved in a 1956 referendum vote.
A New Orleans businessman and navy veteran presented the convention with a proposal he called the “Alaska-Tennessee Plan.” The plan involved electing a congressional delegation without waiting for Congress to act on statehood. This plan had been used in Tennessee, Michigan, California, Oregon, Kansas, and Iowa. In the territory’s 1956 general election, Alaskan voters elected William Egan and Ernest Gruening to the U.S. Senate, and Ralph Rivers was elected as a representative. The delegates went to Washington, D.C., for the first day of the 1957 session of Congress but were not seated in their respective chambers.
With their improved access, the men intensified their lobbying for statehood. Territorial delegate Bob Bartlett was able to persuade Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn to change his position on Alaska statehood. The speaker’s new position brought an end to southern Democrats’ objections to statehood. In 1958, President Eisenhower endorsed Alaska statehood in his state of the union address. Despite the president’s support and the support of Texas senator Lyndon B. Johnson , the House Rules Committee blocked the statehood bill for a short time. Energized by a wave of public support spurred by the 1958 publication of Edna Ferber’s novel, Ice Palace, the bill was discharged from the rules committee and approved by the House in May, 1958. The Senate approved the bill on June 30, 1958. After a referendum vote in which Alaskan voters overwhelmingly approved becoming a state, President Eisenhower signed the proclamation declaring Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.
Impact
The efforts by Alaskans to become a state overcame partisan political differences. Joining the Union did not end all of the new state’s problems, and it actually caused a few more as the federal and state governments labored to deal with ownership of Native American lands and the tax consequences of large expanses of federal lands. While the state received revenue windfalls from its deposits of natural resources, several decades after statehood, some Alaskans wondered if federal government regulation was becoming so burdensome that the state should secede.
Bibliography
McBeath, Gerald A., and Thomas A. Morehouse. Alaska Government and Politics. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994. Examines Alaska’s state government, paying close attention to the relationship between the state and federal governments and Alaska’s political culture.
Naske, Claus-M. Ernest Gruening: Alaska’s Greatest Governor. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2004. A chronicle of Gruening’s career as territorial governor and his work to bring Alaska into the Union.
Naske, Claus-M. A History of Alaska Statehood. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1985. A detailed examination of the statehood effort.