Wong Kim Ark (1873-?)
b. San Francisco, California
United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)
Do You Know? Wong Kim Ark was twenty-one years old when he went to China to visit his parents.
What: Wong challenged the government when he was denied re-entry into the United States on the ground that he was not a US citizen.
Decision: Born in San Francisco, California, Wong was automatically a US citizen.
Today: The 14th Amendment guarantees that all people born in the United States have birthright citizenship regardless of their family's immigrant status.
(Portrait by Jess Camacho, SFSU 2019)