Slide 1: ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDER DESI AMERICAN VOTING RIGHTS: a brief history. AAOP, Asian American Student Union, Hmong Minnesota Student Association, and Chinese American Student Association logos in lower right corner.
Slide 2: Some background context: As of May 2020, the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) community is the fastest growing population of eligible voters out of the major racial identity groups. Almost 5% of eligible voters are APIDA – roughly 15 million people. From 2000 to 2020, the number of eligible APIDA voters has increased by over 130%. About 2/3 of eligible APIDA voters are naturalized citizens (people who were not born in the U.S.) Immigration rights play a key role in APIDA voting rights – that is why this timeline includes immigration legislation.
Slide 3: 1790 – 1850s: The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited citizenship [and therefore voting rights] through naturalization to free white people of “good character” who had lived in the U.S. for at least two years. This excluded all BIPOC. Chinese immigrants started coming to the U.S. and Hawai’i in the early to mid 1800s [a territory at the time] to work as laborers. As the Chinese population grew, so did sinophobia and anti-Chinese sentiment. Images of Chinese immigrants leaving a ship and Naturalization Act text.
Slide 4: 1870 – 1882: The Naturalization Act of 1870 extended naturalization rights for “aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.” This act revoked the citizenship of naturalized Chinese citizens. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended immigration of Chinese laborers to the U.S. for 10 years. It also prevented Chinese immigrants who were already in the U.S. from becoming citizens – which also meant preventing them from becoming eligible voters. Image reading ‘shall we have Chinese: No! No! No!’
Slide 5: 1920 – 1922: The 19th Amendment, passed in 1920, gave women the right to vote – white women, to be exact. BIPOC women were also active in the suffragette movement, but were largely cast aside by white suffragettes, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Anna Howard Shaw. In Takao Ozawa v. United States (1922), the Supreme Court ruled that people of Japanese descent cannot become naturalized citizens and therefore cannot vote. This case also shows the “othering” of APIDAs – no matter how much Ozawa and his family tried to assimilate, they would never have been seen as “true Americans” because they were not white.
Slide 6: 1923 – 1924: In United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923), the Supreme Court rule that people of Indian [India, the country] descent cannot become naturalized citizens and therefore cannot vote. In this case, Thind brought up the fact that he came from Punjab, a region located in northern India. He argued that Punjab was the “original home of the Aryan conquerors,” meaning that Thind was white. The Immigration Act of 1924 enacted a quota system that meant only 2% of immigrants from a nationality in the 1890 census could immigrate to the U.S. This system continued to “other” APIDA immigrants. The very few who were able to immigrate could not become naturalized citizens and therefore could not vote.
Slide 7: 1925 – 1952: In 1925, Congress prevented Flipinx men from becoming citizens unless they served for three years in the U.S. Navy during WW I. The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 granted people of Asian descent the right to become naturalized citizens and therefore the right to vote. This act also granted birthright citizenship to people born in Guam. Images of Flipinx men serving in the army and protest with signs reading ‘immigrants built this nation.’
Slide 8: 1964 – 1965: The 24th Amendment passed in 1964 banned poll taxes. Begun in the 1890s, poll taxes were enacted as a legal way to keep Black people from voting. Eligible voters were required to pay a fee before they could cast a ballot. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the racist quota system from the Immigration Act of 1924. As a result of this change, many APIDAs immigrated to the United States. Images of a poll tax sign and a group of people watching President Johnson sign a bill.
Slide 9: 1975 – 2000: The Voting Rights Act of 1975 added accommodations for voters with limited English skills. This included translators and having voting materials available in multiple languages. A month before the 2000 presidential election, a federal court decided that residents of U.S. colonies/territories, including American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico, cannot vote in general elections. This continues to disenfranchise over 4 million people today. Images of a sign reading ‘vote here’ in several different languages and a protest for voting rights.
Slide 10: Sources: https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/report/50-years-voting-rights-act-asian-american-perspective https://a.s.kqed.net/pdf/education/digitalmedia/us-voting-rights-timeline.pdf https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration https://www.businessinsider.com/the-mccarran-walter-act-grants-all-asian-americans-the-right-to-become-citizens-and-vote-10 https://www.npr.org/2020/08/26/904730251/yes-women-could-vote-after-the-19th-amendment-but-not-all-women-or-men https://immigrationhistory.org/item/naturalization-act-of-1870/ https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/260/178.html https://aaregistry.org/story/united-states-v-bhagat-singh-thind-ruled/ https://www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights/voting-rights-act/history-voting-rights-act https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/us-immigration-since-1965#:~:text=The%20Immigration%20and%20Naturalization%20Act%20of%201965%2C%20also,and%20attracting%20skilled%20labor%20to%20the%20United%20States.