ALEXANDRIA, Va. (7News) — A Georgia congressman’s viral proposal to add Arlington and Alexandria back into Washington, D.C., is called the “Make D.C. Square Again Act,” which has a history lesson buried inside it.
Rep. Rick Allen McCormick posted the idea on X this week, arguing the two Virginia jurisdictions were “always meant” to be part of the nation’s capital. His proposal comes as Virginia fights a federal court order blocking certification of results from a special election tied to its ongoing congressional redistricting battle.
“What we want to do is make D.C. square again,” McCormick wrote. “We repeal that unconstitutional law, give back Virginia exactly what it should have, give D.C. what it should have, and get this thing right.”
There is currently no indication the proposal has any support in Congress or from leaders in D.C. or Virginia. But the history behind it is complicated.
1835 map showing Alexandria as part of original District of Columbia. (Library of Congress)
When Congress established a permanent home for the federal government through the Residence Act of 1790, Virginia and Maryland each surrendered territory to create it. The 100-square-mile District was made up of 69 square miles from Maryland and 31 square miles from Virginia, including what’s now known as Arlington and Alexandria.
When those areas were absorbed into the new District, its residents lost their Virginia state citizenship and, after 1802, could no longer vote in congressional or presidential elections.
Almost from the moment of its passage in 1801, Virginia was looking for a way to get its territory back. But it was economics, specifically the economics of slavery and the domestic slave trade, that ultimately made it happen.
Beginning in the 1820s, Alexandria became a major port of the domestic slave trade, with a series of slave trading companies operating out of a slave pen at 1315 Duke Street. Enslaved people from the Upper South, where tobacco farming was in decline, were bought and sold in Alexandria before being shipped to cotton plantations further south.
DMV 250 | DC marks 178th anniversary of The Pearl, the largest enslaved escape attempt in US history
Interior view of a slave pen at 1315 Duke Street in Alexandria, Virginia between 1861 and 1869. (Library of Congress)
Abolitionists had been vigorously lobbying Congress to end slavery and the slave trade in the District. In response, Alexandrians who profited from slaveholding wanted the town returned to Virginia’s jurisdiction, fearing abolitionists would succeed in banning the practice within the District.
A series of bills to return the “town and county of Alexandria” portion of D.C. to Virginia were proposed in Congress beginning in 1804. Both abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates at various times supported the effort, though for opposing reasons.
A key turning point came in 1844, when Congress ended its self-imposed ban on debating anti-slavery petitions. This was a sign that abolitionist political power was growing, and that the worst-case scenario for Virginia slaveholders was becoming more plausible.
By 1846, white civic leaders were actively lobbying for Alexandria and Arlington’s return to Virginia. Congress passed a retrocession act, and President James K. Polk signed it into law in July 1846. Virginia formally accepted those areas back under its jurisdiction in March 1847.
The decision had immediate consequences for Alexandria’s Black community. African American residents soon experienced the negative impacts of retrocession, including the closure of schools and other gathering sites they had previously been permitted to use while living under the District’s laws.
SEE ALSO | Virginia could adopt its 5th electoral map in 2 census cycles: how we got here
McCormick’s bill undoes the retrocession act passed by Congress. He has framed it as a solution to Virginia’s ongoing redistricting disputes, arguing the congressional map chaos could have been avoided under his proposal.
In a statement, Democratic Congressman Don Beyer, who represents the affected areas in Northern Virginia, called McCormick’s bill “an embarrassing legislative tantrum” and “unconstitutional.”
Wednesday, a federal judge blocked Virginia from certifying results from a redistricting-related special election, ruling both the referendum and the underlying bill unconstitutional. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones confirmed his office will appeal.
No co-sponsors have emerged for McCormick’s proposal. It would also face enormous legal, political, and practical hurdles, including questions about whether Congress can unilaterally alter state boundaries and what it would mean for the about 250,000, largely Democrat, residents of Alexandria and Arlington who currently hold Virginia citizenship.
