Then, What is White?

When citizenship was first defined by Congress in 1790, they restricted naturalization to “white persons”. Though specific previsions of the law shifted over time, until the Immigration and Naturalization act of 1952, individuals had to prove their whiteness to be naturalized. During this time, there were 52 court cases in which people from immigrant communities sued the US government to be considered white. These women, the winners of beauty contests that celebrate both their American identity and culture of origin, come from communities that were represented by those cases.

When citizenship was first defined by Congress in 1790, they restricted naturalization to “white persons”. Though specific previsions of the law shifted over time, until the Immigration and Naturalization act of 1952, individuals had to prove their whiteness to be naturalized. During this time, there were 52 court cases in which people from immigrant communities sued the US government to be considered white. These women, the winners of beauty contests that celebrate both their American identity and culture of origin, come from communities that were represented by those cases.