21″w x 14”h
Printed cloth, batting, thread, embroidery, hope
Exhibit Schedule Here
From it’s very inception, the privilege of citizenship in the Unites States of America has been denied to group after group, based on race and religion. African Americans were not granted citizenship until 1868, four years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Native Americans were not granted citizenship until 1924. Chinese immigrants were not allowed citizenship until 1943. We have turned away people after people who have sought refuge and opportunity. Now our leaders have chosen to vilify Muslims fleeing massacre and Latin Americans fleeing unbearable violence and seeking a better life for their children.
We as citizens can choose to better live the highest of our American values; “that all men are created equal.” Through our individual actions and with compassion we can stitch our country into a tapestry of great strength and beauty. Through our votes and by encouraging data based civil dialogue, we can mend the tears in the fabric of our society.
Flag photograph by Stuart Seager used by permission
Immigrant photos by Augustus Sherman
Manuscripts and Archives Devision
The New York Public Library: public domain
You can hear me speak more about this piece on the
Threads of Resistance website here
History of Racial Discrimination in US Immigration Policy
1790 Any free white person can apply for citizenship after two years of residency.
1798 Alien and Sedition Acts require 14 years of residency before citizenship and provides for deportation of “dangerous” aliens. Changed to five year residency in 1800.
1857 Dred Scott decision declares free Africans non-citizens
1868 The Fourteenth amendment to the constitution grants citizenship to African Americans, four years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act suspended Chinese immigration for 10 years and barred Chinese in the U.S. from citizenship.
1888 Provisions are again adopted for expulsion of aliens.
1891 Bureau of Immigration established. More classes of aliens restricted.
1892 Ellis Island opened on the east coast, Angel Island on the west. Women traveling alone must be met by a man, or they were immediately deported.
1902 Chinese Exclusion Act renewed indefinitely.
1906 Knowledge of English becomes a basic requirement for naturalization.
1907 Head tax on immigrants is raised. People with physical or mental defects and unaccompanied children added to the exclusion list. Japan agrees to limit emigrants to US.
1910 Congress assumed inferiority of “new immigrants” from southern and eastern Europe.
1917 Immigration Act established “Asiatic Barred Zone”
1921 Quota Act of 1921 limited immigrants to 3% of each nationality present in US in 1910.
1922 Japanese made ineligible for citizenship.
1924 Quotas changed to 2% of each nationality based on numbers in 1890. Jewish emigres limited. Border Patrol established. Native Americans made citizens.
1929 Annual quotas of the 1924 act made permanent.
1943 Chinese Exclusion Laws repealed, China’s quota set at token 105 immigrants annually.
1948 Displaced Persons Act allowed 205,000 refugees over two years, gave priority to Baltic States refugees. Technical provisions discriminated against Catholics and Jews.
1950 Grounds for exclusion and deportation are expanded. All aliens required to report their addresses annually.
1952 Immigration and Nationality Act eliminates race as a bar to immigration or citizenship. japans quota set at 185 annually, China’s at 105, the Axian countries 100 apeice. Restrictions placed on immigrants from British colonies in order to stem tide of black West Indians.
1965 Hart-Cellar Act abolished national origins quotas. Categories of preference based on familiy ties, critical skills, artistic excellence, and refugee status established.
1978 Separate celings for Western and Eastern hemispheric immigration combined into a worldwide limit of 290,000.
1980 Refugee Act removes refugees as a preference category.
1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act provides amnesty for many legal aliens.
1990 Immigration Act of 1990 limited unskilled workers to 10,000 per year.
2001 USA Patriot Act amended Immigration and Nationality Act to broaden scope of aliens ineligible for admission or deportable.
2017 President Trump attempts to ban muslims from entering the United States from seven so-called “terrorist” countries in spite of the fact that not one single American life has been lost by a domestic terrorist attack from an immigrant from those countries. There is no ban placed on travel from countries that HAVE attacked the United States. In fact, President Trump greatly admired the dictators in Saudi Arabia.