The Caucasian Who Wasn't "White Enough" to Become an American Citizen

How Bhagat Singh Thind's landmark fight for citizenship exposed America's shifting racial goalposts

Photo: bhagatsinghthind.com

It's 1923. Bhagat Singh Thind, a U.S. Army veteran who fought in World War I, stands before the Supreme Court. His case boils down to this: "You said only white people can become citizens. You also said 'white' means 'Caucasian.' Well, according to your own scientists, I'm Caucasian. So where's my citizenship?"

Just one year earlier, in Ozawa v. United States, the Supreme Court had ruled that only "white persons" or those of "African nativity" could naturalize—and that "white" specifically meant "Caucasian." The Supreme Court unanimously rejected Takao Ozawa's citizenship application, ruling that Japanese immigrants were not "white persons" eligible for naturalization, despite Ozawa's arguments about his light skin color and Western cultural assimilation. So Thind and his lawyers presented a seemingly airtight case: anthropologists classified Indians as "Caucasian" or "Aryan," therefore Thind qualified as "white" under naturalization law.