Gradations of Citizenship, Sovereignty, and Racial Eligibility in U.S. Empire, 1848-1979

FAIN: FT-291454-23

Katrina Quisumbing King
Northwestern University (Evanston, IL 60208-0001)

Research at the National Archives leading to a book about the implementation of U.S. citizenship rights among U.S. territories from 1848 to 1979. 

Today, nearly 4 million people live in U.S. territories. They live under the U.S. flag and hold U.S. passports, but they cannot vote in federal elections. To address how the United States arrived at this state of unequal citizenship, I analyze how U.S. state actors concretized ideas of racial difference in decisions about who and what belonged. From 1848-1917, the United States acquired the territories of New Mexico, Alaska, Hawai?i, Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. While existing work focuses on popular racial depictions of Hawai?i, Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, I ask how bureaucrats, legislators, and judges made decisions about civic and political status during this period and through the 1970s. In this extended timeframe, I analyze the variations in racial management across multiple sites of U.S. empire. This project illuminates the racial limits to U.S. democracy and the experiences of colonial populations.