It was a long, rough road to Hawaii statehood, but on Aug. 21, 1959, the battle for statehood was over. Not everyone was happy.
The Hawaiian Queen was overthrown in 1893, that really hurt. To go from a royal kingdom to being a U.S. territory was a real downgrade for Hawaiians. To be a mere state of a foreign country was a flat-out insult, exchanging one set of chains for another.
It took over 25 years before Prince Kuhio Kalaniana’ole planted the seed of statehood. In 1919 he suggested the idea, but it was too soon, the pain of the takeover still stung.
Resentful feelings ran like burning lava through the hearts of the people. When statehood was brought up again years later in 1946, Hawaiians erupted.
Firebrand senator Kamokila Campbell, lambasted Congress in a speech.
“I do not feel we should forfeit the traditional rights of the natives of our islands for a mere thimbleful of votes in Congress … or sacrifice our birthright for the greed of alien desires to remain on our shores,” she said.
Many Hawaiians felt if Hawaii became a state the big businesses would gain power to control it. It was the overthrow all over again.
A distant evil was rearing its head against statehood, this time from the whites. Prejudiced southern congressmen believed that if Hawaii became a state, its Polynesian legislators would be sympathetic to the rising black movement and vote for equality, which the southern politicians were solidly against. Surprisingly, the civil rights champion, Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, stood with his southern boys against Hawaii statehood and voted 22 times against it.
To add to the sinister drama of it all, McCarthyism in the ‘50s slithered into the fray. Joe McCarthy ranted that the Hawaiian push for statehood was a Communist plot.
With so many opposed, who was for it? Labor leaders, they thought if Hawaii were a state it would generate more jobs. That’s it, follow the money.
But what would a U.S. statehood land deal be without ignoring a law or two? Tricking the native inhabitants is an American tradition.
In 1945, with the lawful agreement of the U.S., Hawaii was placed under Article 73 of the UN Charter. Its purpose was “To develop self-government of Pacific Territories and to assist them in the development of their free institutions (like Hawaiian Sovereignty).” America had joined with the UN, allowing Hawaii to develop freely.
On June 27, 1959, when people went to the polls, on the ballot they were given two options, yes or no, if they wanted Hawaii to be a state. A third option should have asked if they wanted independence. That option was cleverly and illegally omitted.
Out of the Islands’ population of 632,773, only 132,773 voted for statehood, about 8,000 voted against it. Even so, less than 25 percent of the population was for it. It passed, of course.
Given the lopsided choice of yes or no for statehood, a vast number of people thought it would pass, so abstained from voting. Two-thirds of eligible voters stayed home, when the choice for freedom might have roused them to vote.
How different it would have been had people been been given the choice whether to vote for independence, which is what Hawaiians had wished for all along. Many still do.
Dennis Gregory writes a bimonthly column for West Hawaii Today and welcomes your comments at makewavess@yahoo.com.