Events › Birthright Citizenship, Reconstruction, and Immigrant Rights Today Talk by Prof. Greg Downs, UC Davis

How did the United States define citizenship as a birthright for most people born in the country, given that England and much of Europe did not? The answer lies in the struggle over emancipation and Black citizenship after the civil war. Then the push to protect the rights of four million newly free people led to an expansive debate over who was a citizen and what rights did they have. Over time the fourteenth amendment’s definition of birthright citizenship would have massive implications for children of immigrants. We will examine the coming of birthright citizenship, the debate over whom it should cover, the exceptions made to it, and the relevance of that history to battles over citizenship today.

Greg Downs is professor and chair of History at UC Davis, author of four books on slavery, the civil war and reconstruction, and another one forthcoming on Why Reconstruction Matters with Kate Masur. An Albany resident, he has been chair of the Social and Economic Justice Commission and the former Albany Policing Commission.