March 28, 2018 marks the 120th Anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision of United States v. Wong Kim Ark, wherein the Court first articulated the term "birthright citizenship" in reviewing the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. One native San Franciscan of Chinese descent and his community established this legal precedent.
In the backdrop of virulent anti-Chinese sentiment, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (Chinese Six Companies) raised funds and community awareness necessary to give justice to Chinese denied re-entry to their homes in the United States after travel to China. Although Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco, he was barred from re-entry to the United States on a return trip from China under the Chinese Exclusion Act. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified the meaning of the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution and made clear that individuals born in the United States were United States citizens at birth. So marked a major victory for Chinese Americans and a milestone in Asian American, California, and constitutional history.
Millions of individuals today, of all ancestries, directly benefit from the Wong Kim Ark decision in that their United States citizenship is firmly established by their birth in the United States.
Sadly, the threat to birthright citizenship is a persistent shadow over children born to immigrants, especially in these current times.
Please join the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the Chinese Historical Society of America, the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, the Fred T. Korematsu Institute, Asian
Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, and special guest SANDRA WONG (granddaughter of Wong Kim Ark) as we remember Wong Kim Ark and his landmark case on birthright citizenship.
PRESS CONFERENCE:
March 28, 2018, 1:00 PM
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association
843 Stockton Street, San Francisco CA 94108
FILM SCREENING:
March 28, 2018, 6:00 PM
14: Dred Scott, Wong Kim Ark & Vanessa Lopez
Asian Law Caucus
55 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94111