good morning. welcome to "viewpoint." i'm pat lawson muse. in 1973 the district of columbia home rule act allowed citizens of washington to, for the first time, elect their own mayor and city council. this year marks the 40th anniversary of the district's new birth or rebirth, if you will. my guests this money are sterling tucker, the first elected chair of the d.c. council. dr. bernard demchuck, a george washington university professor and liaison and african-american studies teacher at d.c.'s school without walls. reverend frank tucker is pastor of first baptist church in northwest washington. welcome to "viewpoint." mr. tucker, for the benefit of

many who don't know, what is the history of home rule? >> without going back to far, we had it at one time and lost it. and there's -- the movement was on over that long period of time trying to regain it. and there was a lot of opposition to it. as a matter of fact. but our greatest opposition was apathy. but some people in the district didn't want it because they were happy with the way things were. some didn't want it because they didn't trust electing a government. some were happy with the federal government as it was. and they didn't know anything about it because they just don't know. and so those things. we also had to fight those who were really opposed to it, like at that time the board of trade, for example. the board of trade could go up on capitol hill and get what they'd done -- wanted to get done in the district, go right around what we called the

commissioners, the three commissioners then. they didn't want elected government because a majority black population and there was concern as to whether or not business influence could be the same in that kind of context. so there was that kind of opposition to it. so we had to fight all of that. we had to fight on the hill, the house district committee, the senate district committee, composed mainly by leadership by southerners who gained points by home by opposing us in the district. so we had to fight all that. so there was an awful lot to fight, a lot to overcome. it was a hard, hard fight and hard struggle. so overcoming all of that, you know, makes us very optimistic about our future. >> dr. demchuck, how did home rule change life for washington? >> back to chairman tucker's comments that washington, d.c. was really controlled by these southern congressmen who really used it, and i have to use the word, like a plantation.

they treated us as such. and when the urban rebellions began in '64, '65, '66, they realized that they should pay closer attention to washington, d.c., which is 70% black at that time. and then congress began to understand and particularly president johnson understood that he needed some african-american leadership in washington, d.c. in the elections and elected officials. so he appointed walter washington as the first mayor. then he gets elected as the first elected mayor in '74. that was important because it came as a result of great pressure by people in urban centers around the country. dr. king gets killed in '68, urban centers are burning up. they had to do something. it was that pressure from the people who said it's about time to let local people run their local affairs. that happens in '73. >> reverend tucker, you were here. you've run a church in the city

for many, many years. talk about what it meant for the citizens of the district of columbia. >> it meant participation. it meant representation. it meant involvement. it meant fresh opportunity. to gaengage in government. it meant job improvement. it meant upward mobility. it was a positive move on the part of the citizens and the interest of the citizens when home rule came into being. >> what is the home rule act, 40th anniversary commemoration and celebration commission all about, chairman tucker? >> well, two things. one in the celebration, and again, demcheck is a member of the commission also. we're trying to do two things. one is to celebrate the progress. the fact that we have home

recall. in spite of our problems we've proven that we can govern and we can govern efficiently in spite of the ups and downs. secondly to remind us there's a lot of unfinished business ahead. we don't control our budget. there are some other limitations. we have to still send all of our legislation to the congress and for 30 days and we don't have any representation, voting representation, in the congress. so all of that is still to be done. lots of building to be done still. so we want to remind them that while we celebrate now, it took us a long, hard time and a hard fight to get here. a long, hard fight still ahead. but we're making progress. we expect to get there. >> dr. demcheck, you've been celebrating throughout the year. a big event on the 28th of october? >> october 28th, 6 partly clo:0 the wilson building, city hall, we'll celebrate, we'll have

music, talks, the mayor, city council members will be there. as are we're going to have with us a lot of the old-timers who really were in the trenches in the '60s and '70s to create this opportunity for full democracy. so this is a big celebration on that evening and we invite the public down, including you, to come and celebrate with us. >> all right action we've got to take a break. we'll continue our talk right after this.

have you seen the news about barbara comstock? first, the washington post reported, barbara comstock failed to report eighty-five thousand in income. now, we learn, barbara comstock pushed a client's issues in the virginia legislature and didn't disclose it. barbara comstock shepherded a trio of bills through the legislature and into law, but barbara comstock never officially disclosed that all the while she was being paid thousands of dollars. no wonder she hid it.

we're talking about home rule. just before the break, dr. demcheck, you were talking about the folks who are putting together the celebration. a lot of the them are old faces that some of us will remember. and i'd like to show you a picture recently of the reunion of council members and former mayors. you all got together for this reunion a couple of weeks ago

must bring back a lot of memories. >> yes. it was like old home week there. we're trying to get as many elected officials together as we could. because there's no picture of that anywhere in any archives. so we wanted to get that together. one thing we're trying to do is gather that old history ask bring it together. panels of one kind or another, gathering photos, trying to put a history together. that's part of the panel that reverend tucker is working with. so we're trying to bring all that history together, put it together in one place. >> reverend tucker, you are coordinating the faith part of this. >> yes, we're looking forward to a wonderful experience on the 29th at howard university divinity school where we are inviting all of the faith community to come and celebrate with us. we will have members of the city

council, first elected council, who were, in fact, clergypersons. it is important for us to remember that the faith community played a significant role in the governance of the city before and after home rule came into being. it has been a major force in making sure that people get the support and help that they need for healthy and wholesome living. and we don't want that left out, we don't want it to be forgotten that the wellbeing of the citizens in the district of columbia has been the result of the leadership often by the faith community. and somehow we're seeing a shift in that now.

and we want to lift that up as well. the fact that it's important. the role is important and it's still important for the faith community to be gained. >> dr. demcheck, the city has changed a lot. what do you think about all of the changes, the development, the way the neighborhoods have changed? in your eyes does d.c. today bear any resemblance to the district that we saw 40 years ago? >> you know, 40 years ago the city was 70% african-american. today it's 45% african-american. the unfortunate thing that happens with that decrease in population is also the vanishing of our african-american institutions such as the churches, such as cafes, such as eateries, such as museums, such as places where african-american culture was really the top of the country right here in washington, d.c. and so with these changes also

is going this amazing culture, particularly the faith culture, that led us this far, this long, got us to this position. it's a double-edged sword. there's a lot of good things happening in the city now. there's a lot of good restaurants, there's a lot of good money coming in the city, there's a lot of good ideas. one of the things i'm impressed with young people today, they want home rule, they want state wood, the three stars and two bars of the flag of d.c. everywhere with new people coming in. i think there's a positive part. the part that i'm afraid of is that we lose our enormous culture that we've had built up for so long, and particularly we're losing a lot of our fade community as well. >> pick up on that point about the city's new population and how much home rule really does mean to them. >> well, it's interesting. because at one time, the old-timers who had come here were not interested in home rule very much.

but the newer people are coming in, becoming very active in their government. in their neighborhoods. they're the real new activists in the community. because they're younger people and they're very aggressive and they're very smart and they're working to build up their communities. the challenge is that we don't change our community so much that we lose much of what the doctor talked about the culture of it. interaction among communities. the ability to live in the city. the older neighborhoods. i'm delighted that communities are building up, the neighborhoods are building up all over town. that's the case. because the government tried to do it and it couldn't do it. it had to be praft capital. private capital. that's been working. but it's shifted a little bit too much. we've got to find a way to keep balance in the community in terms of the income groups, the racial communities, and that's the richness of washington. we've got to try to keep -- we're very much challenged

there. >> you talked about upward moan mobility. has the city achieves any of those goals that you were so excited about in 1973? >> it's no doubt that the people were enhanced, their lifestyle was improved, and you saw them making that upward -- of course, that's a part of making room for the new persons into the city. because they gained their economic security and moved into the areas where affluence was and moved into other areas. >> and a lot have moved out to places like prince george's county. >> absolutely. it is in that context that the city then lost some of its richness in that process. but, at the same time, those persons are feedi ining back in

the city as well. they are making contributions in the city as well. particularly when they're able to come and maintain those institutions that, like the church, that helps those persons who are down and out. that's a part of the reciprocity that takes place with the upward mobility and the exchange of community and the sharing of community in the process. it has been healthy on the one hand. and certainly we don't want to destroy that cultural richness that is there to help people in that process. >> we've got to take a break. we'll continue on that point in just a moment.

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the city changing. reverend tucker alluded to the fact that a lot of folks have moved out and that there still needs to be an exchange of ideas and that you've got lots of suburb suburbanites whose lives or at least work is i wassed in washington. there's a lot of criticism about the district's progress. it's progressed to the point where people who used to live here can't live here anymore. it's too expensive. and they have moved out. and what does that cost the city? >> that's costing the city, as i said, costing the city its real diversity in culture, diversity in economics. we don't want a city that looks just like bethesda. i like bethesda but why do we want a city that just looks like that? we want diversity, not just racial, ethnic and religious diversity, but economic diversity. what's happening today is people, as reverend tucker was

saying, people can't afford to live in washington, d.c. unless you're very, very rich. we're losing economic diversity in this city. >> chairman tucker, statistics show just this week that d.c. is one of the most expensive places in the country to live now. >> you go from one of the poorest places to live, the numbers of poor people, now that number has decreased. so it's truly remarkable. in some strange ways, at one time we were at the point where we couldn't raise enough tax money to take care of all of our needs. because we had the large number of poor people, all the problems that we had. we still have those problems. we had to have more development in our community to increase our tax base, so we could pay for all the needs in our schools and all of our services.

we're at that point where we're doing a much better job there. but in that process, we've had to take land, you see, to develop the businesses, to develop high rises. more taxes but less room for poor people. how do you do this, work this through? the city is working to try to develop an affordable housing program plan. that needs to be looked at and worked on. lots of things they need to do yet. the challenges are greater as we become her affluent, getting a new set of gnaw challenges that we face. we've got to work with those. >> pat, we're not only the richest city, as we saw in the report just recently this week. we also have more money in the bank than any other city. we have $1.2 billion in reserves, in surplus, in our budget. no other city in the country has that. it's my position that we need to take some of that money and start putting it into real

affordable housing. not affordable housing for somebody who makes $100,000 a year but real affordable housing, somebody who makes $25,000 a year, so they can actually live in washington, d.c. we need a billion-dollar affordable housing initiative in this city. $1 billion. we can do that. >> congress still controls the purse strings. how much does that bother you? the fact that the city has so much to say about the budget and issues like decriminalization of marijuana, needle exchange programs, until recently. >> it bothers me that congress has anything to say about it. at one time we got a large percentage of our congress but not anymore. that's not the case. we contribute more to the federal government in funds than we get from the federal government. so they shouldn't be in our business at all. we should be functioning. with full control over all of our affairs. so it does bother me. the one thing, while there are points where the congress does

interfe interfere, on high-visibility issues, there are lots of places where they do not. in other words, they're showing less and less interest in our decision-making. we're exercising more authority than we once did. most of them don't pay much attention to it. unless there's a big fuss made out in this country somewhere, by some member of congress. but they still have that authority that we should have. so i don't like that. that should be replaced. and so we do -- i get very unhappy, a gun control bill, for instance, that the people of the city like, supported for years, you know. and i don't like that at all. to tell us, you know, what our local laws should be affecting local people. that disturbs me greatly still. i think that's an arrogance of the federal g. when i say the federal government, it's really a few people there with their own personal interests who -- they

were able to exercise it because the rest of the congress doesn't pay much attention. that's a challenge. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. wothe way als dismantles someone like stuarty. is so painful. embryonic stem cells have so much promise, but barbara comstock voted to ban that research funding even though conservatives like nancy reagan support it. that takes away hope for a cure -- but also, for families like ours, who just wanted a little more time. house majority pac is responsible for the content of this advertising. the all-new mercedes-benz gla took nearly 600lbs of high- strength steel. setting industry-leading safety standards took 20,800 crash simulations. and perfecting its engine took over 1.1 million miles of extreme driving.

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dr. demcheck, what do you see as the future of home rule? >> i think the future of home rule depends on us. just the same way that we created home rule in the '60s and '70s with our pressure, it's up to us. i don't think that we're angry enough. i think we have just enough democracy here in the city to keep us happy. vote for mayor, vote for city council, vote for school board. we need to get more angry, we need to put more pressure on the president of the united states and more pressure on the congress, more pressure on everybody in the united states. we're not angry enough. i do believe that the more active we get, the faster we will get complete home rule. >> reverend tucker? >> i certainly agree with that.

we need to put the pressure on. until we get excited, until we move on it, until we make the efforts ourselves, as was done. there was disturbance, there was civil unrest when we got this part of the law brought in. when we got limited home rule. we really needed to make sure that we put the kind of energy and effort that's necessary to turn it around. we've got to push the issue on. >> chairman tucker? >> on january 22nd, 1975, when we were installed, the first government, as i looked out over all those people standing out there in the cold that day, my thought was, what a great opportunity it is to be standing at the edge of tomorrow. i feel that way about full representation. we're still at the age of tomorrow in terms of full representation. we're going to get it. it's going to take a lot of hard

work. >> >> thank you, gentlemen. that's "viewpoint."

this morning waiting for word. we could have a major break in the case of missing uva student hannah graham. you are looking at the scene as police surround a community where remains were found. good sunday morning. i'm angie goff. >> i'm chris lawrence. welcome to "news 4 today." >> this morning we are waiting r the results from thl examiner in richmond to identify the human remains. searchers yesterday dur search for missing student hannah graham. the fairfax teen disappeared more than five weeks ago. >> the remains were discovered in an abandoned property in albemarle county. news 4's