Explore histories of migration, citizenship and belonging in Germany and the U.S. over the centuries.
In a landmark 1923 Supreme Court case, the court ruled that Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian immigrant and U.S. army veteran, was not “white” and, therefore, could not become a U.S. citizen.
According to the Naturalization Act of 1790 (see also: Naturalization Act of 1790), only “free white” immigrants were eligible for naturalization. Thind had argued that South Asians were in fact classified as part of the “Caucasian race” and were therefore white. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court had previously ruled that whiteness was a scientific fact of Caucasian ancestry, in order to deny citizenship to Thind, it ruled that whiteness was a matter of “common sense.” The ruling led to more than 50 denaturalization proceedings of previously naturalized South Asians.
Ian Haney Lopez. White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race. New York and London: New York University Press.
Larry Adelman. Race: the Power of an Illusion. San Francisco: California Newsreel.
Vivek Bald. Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America. United States of America: Harvard University Press.
