Asian Exclusion and the Battle for Birthright Citizenship

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the United States faced a momentous question: how would it redefine the legal status and rights of minority communities? Asian immigrants were, uniquely, the only immigrant group denied citizenship between 1870 and 1952, when the United States eliminated all racial prerequisites in existing naturalization law. Their children, in effect, became the first and primary group born to immigrants with no pathway to naturalization and, as new hopes for racial equality took root, nativists employed the legal status of these children’s parents to narrow—and even eliminate—the promises of birthright citizenship and equal protection protected by the 14th Amendment for their children. This conference returns to this history and contextualizes efforts to restrict and strip birthright citizenship from the children of immigrants ineligible to naturalize within the context of Asian American history. It will bring together scholars from legal history, Asian American Studies, and the history of the U.S. West to investigate concerted, decades-long campaigns against birthright citizenship.

Funding provided by The E.L. & Ruth B. Shannon Endowment.

Key Details

• Conference registration covers both days and includes general admission to The Huntington.