|
|
|
Dates |
Event |
Group
affected |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_long.gif) |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
Jump
to: 1840 1850 1860
1870 1880 1890
1900 1910 1920
1930 1940 1950
1960 1970 1980
1990 2001 |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
![](images/spacer.gif) |
1786 |
The
U. S, establishes first Native American reservation and the policy
of dealing with each tribe as an independent nation.
|
Native
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1790 |
The
federal government requires two years of residency for naturalization |
All
Groups |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1808 |
Congress
bans importation of slaves. |
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1816 |
The
American Colonization Society forms assists in repatriating
free African Americans to a Liberian colony on the West Coast
of Africa. |
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1819 |
Congress
establishes reporting on immigration. |
All
Groups |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1820 |
The
Compromise of 1820 admits Maine as a free state, Missouri
as a slave state; also prohibits slavery in territories north
of Missouri. |
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1830 |
Congress
passes the Removal Act, forcing Native Americans to settle in
Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. |
Native
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1838 |
Cherokee
Indians forced on thousand-mile march to the established Indian
Territory. Approximately 4,000 Cherokees die on this Trail
of Tears. |
Native
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1845 |
Potato
crop fails in Ireland sparking the Potato Famine which kills one
million and prompts almost 500,000 to immigrate to America over
the next five years. |
Irish |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1848 |
The
Mexican-American War ends: U. S. acquires additional territory
and people under its jurisdiction. |
Mexican |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1849 |
The
California Gold Rush sparks first mass immigration from China.
|
Chinese |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1850 |
The
Compromise of 1850 includes the Fugitive Slave Act, a law designed
to assist in the recovery of runaway slaves by increasing federal
officers and denying fugitive slaves a right to a jury trial.
|
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1857 |
Supreme
Courts Dred Scott Decision declares blacks are not U.S.
citizens; rules 1820 Missouri Compromises ban on slavery
in the territories unconstitutional. |
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1860 |
Polands
religious and economic conditions prompt immigration of approximately
two million Poles by 1914. |
Polish
& Russian |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1861 |
Abraham
Lincoln takes the presidential oath of office. The Southern Confederacy
ratifies a new Constitution and elects Jefferson Davis as the
first Confederate president. The Civil War begins with Confederate
soldiers firing upon Fort Sumter. |
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1862 |
The
American Homestead Act allows any male over the age of 21 and
a head of a family to claim up to 160 acres of land and improve
it within five years or to purchase the land at a small fee.
|
Scandinavian |
|
The
Union Army permits black men to enlist as laborers, cooks, teamsters,
and servants. |
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1863 |
The
Emancipation Proclamation abolishes slavery and permits African
American men to join the Union Army. |
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1864 |
Congress
legalizes the importation of contract laborers.
|
|
|
Thousands
of Navajo Indians endure the Long Walk, a three-hundred
mile forced march from a Southwest Indian territory to Fort Sumner,
New Mexico. |
Native
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1868 |
The
14th Amendment of the Constitution endows African American with
citizenship.
|
African
American |
|
A
clause in the 14th Amendment excluding Indians not taxed
prevents Native-American men from receiving the right to vote.
|
Native
American |
|
Japanese
laborers arrive in Hawaii to work in sugar cane fields. |
Japanese |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1870 |
The
15th Amendment of the Constitution provides African-American males
with the right to vote. |
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1876 |
California
Senate committee investigates the social, moral, and political
effect of Chinese immigration. |
Chinese |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1877 |
United
States Congress investigates the criminal influence of Chinese
immigrants. |
Chinese |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1880 |
Italys
troubled economy, crop failures, and political climate begin the
start of mass immigration with nearly four million Italian immigrants
arriving in the United States. |
Italian |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1881 |
The
assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881 prompts civil unrest
and economic instability throughout Russia. |
Polish
& Russian |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1882 |
Russias
May Laws severely restrict the ability for Jewish citizens to
live and work in Russia. The countrys instability prompts
more than three million Russians to immigrate to the United States
over three decades.
|
Polish
& Russian |
|
The
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspends immigration of Chinese
laborers under penalty of imprisonment and deportation. |
Chinese |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1885 |
Congress
bans the admission of contract laborers. |
|
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1887 |
The
Dawes Act dissolves many Indian reservations in United States.
|
Native
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1889 |
Unoccupied
lands in Oklahoma are made available to white settlers. |
Native
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1896 |
The
Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate
but equal accommodations for African Americans and whites
were Constitutional. This decision allows for legalized segregation.
|
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1898 |
The
Spanish-American War begins with a naval blockade of Cuba and
attacks on the island. The four-month conflict ends with Cubas
independence and the U.S. acquisition of Puerto Rico and Guam.
|
Cuban
& Puerto Rican |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1900 |
Congress
establishes a civil government in Puerto Rico and the Jones Act
grants U.S. citizenship to island inhabitants. U.S. citizens can
travel freely between the mainland and the island without a passport.
|
Cuban
& Puerto Rican |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1907 |
The
United States and Japan form a Gentlemans Agreement
in which Japan ends issuance of passports to laborers and the
U.S. agrees not to prohibit Japanese immigration. |
|
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1911 |
The
Dillingham Commission identifies Mexican laborers as the best
solution to the Southwest labor shortage. Mexicans are exempted
from immigrant head taxes set in 1903 and 1907. |
Mexican |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1913 |
Californias
Alien Land Law rules that aliens ineligible to citizenship
were ineligible to own agricultural property. |
Japanese |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1917 |
The
U.S. enters World War I and anti-German sentiment swells at home
as the names of schools, foods, streets, towns, and even some
families, are changed to sound less Germanic. |
German |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1922 |
The
Supreme Court rules in Ozawa v. United States first-generation
Japanese are ineligible for citizenship and could not apply for
naturalization. |
Japanese |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1924 |
Immigration
Act of 1924 establishes fixed quotas of national origin and eliminates
Far East immigration.
|
Japanese |
|
President
Calvin Coolidge signs a bill granting Native Americans full citizenship.
|
Native
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1929 |
Congress
makes annual immigration quotas permanent. |
|
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1941 |
Japans
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii galvanizes Americas
war effort. Over 1,000 Japanese-American community leaders are
incarcerated because of national security.
|
Japanese |
|
President
Roosevelt signs Executive Order 8802, forbidding discrimination
in federal hiring, job-training programs, and defense industries.
The newly created Fair Employment Practices Commission investigates
discrimination against black employees. |
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1942 |
President
Franklin Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, authorizing the
building of relocation camps for Japanese Americans
living along the Pacific Coast.
|
Japanese |
|
Congress
allows for importation of agricultural workers from within North,
Central, and South America. The Bracero Program allows Mexican
laborers to work in the U.S. |
Mexican |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1943 |
The
Magnuson Act of 1943 repeals the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882,
establishes quotas for Chinese immigrants, and makes them eligible
for U.S. citizenship. |
Chinese |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1945 |
The
War Bride Act and the G.I. Fiancées Act allows immigration
of foreign-born wives, fiancé(e)s, husbands, and children
of U.S. armed forces personnel. |
Chinese |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1948 |
The
Supreme Court rules that Californias Alien Land Laws prohibiting
the ownership of agricultural property violates the Constitutions
14th Amendment.
|
Japanese |
|
The
United States admits persons fleeing persecution in their native
lands; allowing 205,000 refugees to enter within two years. |
|
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1950 |
Bureau
of Indian Affairs terminates federal services for Native Americans
in lieu of state supervision. |
Native
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1952 |
The
Immigration and Nationality Act allows individuals of all races
to be eligible for naturalization. The act also reaffirms national
origins quota system, limits immigration from the Eastern Hemisphere
while leaving the Western Hemisphere unrestricted, establishes
preferences for skilled workers and relatives of U.S. citizens
and permanent resident aliens; and tightens security and screening
standards and procedures.
|
|
|
The
Bureau of Indian Affairs begins selling 1.6 million acres of Native
American land to developers. |
Native
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1953 |
Congress
amends the 1948 refugee policy to allow for the admission of 200,000
more refugees. |
|
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1954 |
The
Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education that
separate but equal educational facilities were unconstitutional.
|
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1959 |
Fidel
Castros Cuban revolution prompts mass exodus of over 200,000
people within three years. |
Cuban
& Puerto Rican |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1961 |
The
Cuban Refugee Program handles influx of immigrants to Miami with
300,000 relocated across the United States during the next two
decades. |
Cuban
& Puerto Rican |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1964 |
The
Civil Rights Acts ensures voting rights and prohibits housing
discrimination. |
African
American |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1965 |
The
Immigration Act of 1965 abolishes quota system in favor of quota
systems with 20,000 per country limits. Preference is given to
immediate families of immigrants and skilled workers.
|
Chinese |
|
Freedom
flight airlifts begin for Cuban refugees assisting over
260,000 people over the next eight years.
|
Cuban
& Puerto Rican |
|
The
Bracero Program ends after temporarily employing almost 4.5 million
Mexican nationals. |
Mexican |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1966 |
The
Cuban Refugee Act permits more than 400,000 people to enter the
United States. |
Cuban
& Puerto Rican |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1980 |
The
Refugee Act redefines criteria and procedures for admitting refugees.
|
|
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1986 |
The
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) legalizes illegal aliens
residing in the U.S. unlawfully since 1982. |
|
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
1988 |
The
Civil Liberties Act provides compensation of $20,000 and a presidential
apology to all Japanese-American survivors of the World War II
internment camps. |
Japanese |
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006135107im_/http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/images/dottedline_spacy.gif) |
2001 |
A
memorial honoring Japanese-American veterans and detainees opens
on the edge of the Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C. |
|