In August 1895, a young cook named Wong Kim Ark was about to disembark from the S.S. Coptic, after a long journey home to San Francisco from China, when U.S. customs officials denied him re-entry. He was not a U.S. citizen, they said. Never mind that Mr. Wong had been born in San Francisco’s Chinatown, […]

In August 1895, a young cook named Wong Kim Ark was about to disembark from the S.S. Coptic, after a long journey home to San Francisco from China, when U.S. customs officials denied him re-entry. He was not a U.S. citizen, they said. Never mind that Mr. Wong had been born in San Francisco’s Chinatown, […]