To Be a Citizen

In 1894 a young Californian named Wong Kim Ark traveled to China to visit his parents. When he returned to San Francisco, he was refused re-entry to the U.S., the nation of his birth, by the Chinese Exclusion Acts. The Acts denied naturalization to Chinese immigrants and prevented most Chinese from entering the United States. At a time when the United States was trying to exclude all Chinese immigrants,  Wong Kim Ark's claim of birthright citizenship was questioned by immigration officials. Wong decided to fight back and asserted his constitutional right under the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Supreme Court. In doing so, he affirmed the citizenship rights of all persons born in the United States.

With Erika Lee, Professor of History and Director of the Asian American Studies Program. Lee is the author of two award-winning books, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America (2010) and At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era. She has served as a Fesler-Lampert Professor in the Public Humanities, a McKnight Presidential Fellow, and a McKnight Land-Grant Professor  at the University of Minnesota. In 2011, she was awarded the Arthur "Red" Motley Award for Teaching.