Free white persons

The first naturalization law, in 1790, allowed only a free white person of good character to naturalize, and the laws of 1795 and 1802 kept the rule. It did not exclude anyone by sex. The Naturalization Act of 1870 extended naturalization to people of African birth or descent, but Asian immigrants remained barred.

Congress opened naturalization to Chinese, Filipino, Indian and Western Hemisphere peoples in the 1940s, and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 removed racial barriers altogether. Courts did not always apply the rule strictly, and some judges naturalized people the law excluded.