Our mission is to provide resources and support for the local Asian, South Asian, Pacific Islander American community, and increase the visibility and representation of the Asian American diaspora in Evanston’s civic, cultural and community spaces through the arts.
Historical Background
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The histories of Evanston's ASPA communities were very much shaped by discriminatory immigration laws in the U.S. and the decades of discrimination in this country against people from Asian countries.
As a result, Evanston had a relatively small ASPA population in the late 19th century and early 20th century. First were immigrants from China, who were mostly single men, and then later immigrants from other countries start to arrive. Changes in immigration laws that came later in the 20th century, especially the passage of the 1965 immigration law, would change the patterns of immigration once restrictions were lifted.
In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first federal law focused on restricting immigration, was passed. The act made it impossible for Chinese immigrants to become US citizens and barred Chinese immigrant laborers from entering the U.S. for a decade. By this act, Chinese immigrants already in the U.S. became so-called “permanent aliens.”
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A decade later in 1892, the U.S. Congress passed the Geary Act which extended the Chinese Exclusion Act and added other restrictions. It also ordered “all Chinese laborers within the limits of the United States” to apply for, obtain, and carry “certificates of residence.” The Act also included the provision “That any Chinese person or person of Chinese descent . . . not lawfully entitled to be or remain in the United States shall be imprisoned at hard labor for a period of not exceeding one year and thereafter removed from the United States.”
Certificate of Residence
Subsequent laws would go further, including the Johnson Reed Act of 1924 which was the culmination of decades of intentional exclusion of Asian immigrants. That law formalized a ban on immigration from most Asian countries and prohibited Asian immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens.
Wong Kim Ark
Despite the restrictions of immigrants from ASPA countries, there were some advances made by immigrants that would change to very definition of American citizenship.
Wong Kim Ark. His actions would change the course of history for all Americans: He was in his 20s when he insisted upon his legal rights as an American citizen. In 1897, Wong Kim Ark was denied re-entry into the U.S. when he returned to his hometown of San Francisco after a visit to China. Wong asserted that he was a U.S. citizen by birth, even though his parents had been born in China (and were therefore barred from U.S. citizenship). His case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1898, the court’s landmark ruling was issued in a 6-2 decision affirming Wong Kim Ark’s American citizenship and establishing the concept of “birthright” American citizenship.
This ruling was critical for all immigrants, and particularly for those whose parents were denied access to citizenship but whose American born children were American citizens.