The partisan divide over statehood for Washington, D.C.

In 1959 when Hawaii became the 50th state, it was the conclusion of a decades-long fight. 

To be sure, there had been fierce political opposition. In 1958 Sen. James Eastland (D-Miss.) said, "We would have in the American Congress two senators and a representative who, in my judgement, would be influenced by the Communist Party." And there were questions about whether Hawaiians could ever be "real Americans." In an interview, Ingram Stainback, who'd served as a territorial governor of Hawaii, said, "The yellow race, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Filipinos – their background is not the culture of the United States as a whole."