Racist by Design: In Conversation with Kelly Lytle Hernández & Bill Deverell
Thu., Dec. 3, 2026, 12–1 p.m.
Free with registration
Webinar
Drawing on decades of historical research, Lytle Hernández reveals how generations of lawmakers and law enforcement officials deliberately shaped the U.S. immigration system to encourage white immigration while targeting nonwhite migrants for exclusion, criminalization, and deportation. Exposing the racial foundations of immigration policy and its enduring consequences, this conversation will dive into the immigration system’s origins and how we might reimagine its future.
Top image: Illustrated London News, publisher. Chinese emigration to America: sketch on board the steam-ship Alaska, bound for San Francisco, 1876-04-29, John Haskell Kemble Collection. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
About the Organization
The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
ICW is a center for scholarly investigation of the history and culture of California and the American West. Through sponsorship of innovative scholarship, research, and programming, ICW draws on the resources of USC and the Huntington Library to build a unique collaboration among a research university, a research library, and the public