A court decides who is white under the law Charleston, S.C. 1915

In Dow v. United States, George Dow, a Syrian Christian living in Charleston, S.C., challenged two district court rulings denying his petition for naturalization. The lower courts reasoned that, as a Syrian of Asiatic birth, Dow was not a free white person within the meaning of the Naturalization Act of 1790. Despite the passage of numerous amendments and related new laws over the years (including exceptions for people of African descent or nativity), in 1915 the act still limited eligibility for citizenship to “any alien, being a free white person who shall have resided within the limits of the United States for a term of two years.” —Read the article by Sahar F. Aziz.

Image: Immigrants at Ellis Island. Courtesy Library of Congress.