Wong Kim Ark: Civil Rights Pioneer

Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco in or around 1873 to Chinese immigrant parents. They migrated to America when there were few restrictions on who could enter the United States.

In 1895, after a trip to visit China, Wong was denied re-entry to the U.S. under the Chinese Exclusion Act. Immigration officials claimed that he was not a citizen because his parents were Chinese nationals, and according to them, Wong could not be an American citizen.

Wong Kim Ark challenged the government’s position in court, and his case — United States vs. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) — eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, birthright citizenship has been guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment addressed Dred Scott vs. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857), where the Court held that an enslaved person born in the U.S. could never be a citizen.

In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–2 in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause confers citizenship to anyone born in the United States, regardless of their parents' background or immigration status.

Wong Kim Ark's case confirmed that birthright citizenship extended to all.This ushered in an era that reconceptualized who belonged in America. It expanded the ambit of equality – also guaranteed by the 14th Amendment – by protecting the children of immigrants from being denied citizenship based on their heritage.

Wong Kim Ark’s case has had a lasting legal impact, not only for Asian American communities but all communities. At a time when Asian immigrants were excluded from naturalization and faced widespread discrimination, his U.S. Supreme Court victory ensured that U.S.-born children of immigrants could not be denied citizenship.

Today, as debates over immigration and birthright citizenship continue, the Wong Kim Ark decision remains a crucial safeguard for AANHPI communities and beyond.

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