Race, Citizenship, and U.S. Law
1. Identify the following:
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Naturalization Act of 1790
Naturalization Act of 1870
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
Gentlemen’s Agreement
Takao Ozawa v. United States
Oriental Exclusion Act of 1924
McCarran Walter Act of 1952
Interpret the cartoon on p. 2:
1. Describe what seems to be happening in the cartoon.
2. Is the cartoon pro- or anti-nativist? What details support your answer?
Article I of the U.S. Constitution states that Congress has the power “to establish a
uniform rule of naturalization.” The first Naturalization Act of 1790 limited the right to
become a naturalized citizen to “free white persons.” After the Civil War, the
Naturalization Act of 1870 extended the right of naturalization to former slaves, making
aliens of African birth and persons of African descent also eligible. Being neither white
nor black, Japanese immigrants, along with other Asians, were classified as “aliens
ineligible to citizenship.”
Anti-Asian Measures
The first immigration law to exclude a class of people targeted Asians—the Chinese
Exclusion Act of 1882. The Asiatic Exclusion League mounted a campaign in 1905 to
exclude Japanese and Koreans from the United States and the San Francisco Board of
Education ruled that all Japanese and Korean students would join the Chinese at the
segregated Oriental School established in 1884. (There were only 93 Japanese students in
the 23 San Francisco public schools at that time, 25 were US citizens.) An amendment to
the California State Political Code in 1921 established separate schools for Asian
children—they attended segregated schools until the California legislature repealed the
legislation in 1947.
To appease those agitating for an end to Japanese immigration, President Theodore
Roosevelt negotiated a "Gentlemen’s Agreement." The Japanese government agreed not
to issue passports to laborers immigrating to the United States.
In the case Takao Ozawa v. United States (1922), the Supreme Court ruled that Asians,
being neither white nor black, were ineligible for citizenship. The majority decision
stated “only free white persons shall be included [as citizens]. The intention [of Congress
in its naturalization laws] was to confer the privilege of citizenship upon that class of
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persons whom the fathers knew as white, and to deny it to all who could not be so
classified…”
The anti-Japanese exclusion movement climaxed with the passage of immigration
legislation in 1924. The Oriental Exclusion Act of 1924 prohibited almost all
immigration from Asia, even the immigration foreign-born wives and children of U.S.
citizens of Chinese ancestry.
Cartoon from Puck Magazine:
Ending Race as an Issue in Citizenship
Over the years Congress added more and more categories of people who could become citizens:
Native Americans in 1924, Latin Americans in 1940, Chinese in 1943, Filipinos and Asian Indians
in 1946, and—finally—Japanese and Koreans. Finally, under the McCarran Walter Act of 1952,
Congress finally amended the law to read: “The right of a person to become a naturalized
citizen...shall not be denied or abridged because of race…”
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