Senator Charles Sumner proposed having a race-neutral naturalization law on July 2, 1870. Up until then, only free white persons could naturalize. However, Senator William M. Stewart decided to filibuster the said bill because it would open the door to Asian (especially focusing on Chinese) immigrants to naturalization. He would even recount this 3 decades later in which he said that there should not be “race-prejudiced” legislation but he said that he did what was “necessary”, to paraphrase him, “for the West to not be overrun by Chinese immigrants.”
They came up with the compromise that only white and African immigrants (which was a minuscule number at this point in US history) could naturalize and they stuck with that until the 1940s and 1950s. That clause about “white” immigrants also led to some litigation from an Indian immigrant who said that they were “white”, but the Supreme Court rejected his case. However, according to certain US court rulings, some people from the Middle East (in that case, a Syrian immigrant) were classified as “white.”
Ironically, Stewart is also largely credited to have authored the 15th Amendment, which banned discrimination of voting based on race or color (which was largely circumvented until 1965). Stewart himself admitted that if the Chinese immigrants had the vote, there would not be Chinese exclusion.
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Senator Charles Sumner proposed having a race-neutral naturalization law on July 2, 1870. Up until then, only free white persons could naturalize. However, Senator William M. Stewart decided to filibuster the said bill because it would open the door to Asian (especially focusing on Chinese) immigrants to naturalization. He would even recount this 3 decades later in which he said that there should not be “race-prejudiced” legislation but he said that he did what was “necessary”, to paraphrase him, “for the West to not be overrun by Chinese immigrants.”
They came up with the compromise that only white and African immigrants (which was a minuscule number at this point in US history) could naturalize and they stuck with that until the 1940s and 1950s. That clause about “white” immigrants also led to some litigation from an Indian immigrant who said that they were “white”, but the Supreme Court rejected his case. However, according to certain US court rulings, some people from the Middle East (in that case, a Syrian immigrant) were classified as “white.”
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalization_Act_of_1870](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalization_Act_of_1870)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Bhagat_Singh_Thind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Bhagat_Singh_Thind)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_v._United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_v._United_States)
Ironically, Stewart is also largely credited to have authored the 15th Amendment, which banned discrimination of voting based on race or color (which was largely circumvented until 1965). Stewart himself admitted that if the Chinese immigrants had the vote, there would not be Chinese exclusion.
Same Sumner who got canned by Senator Brooks