ABSTRACT
Early Forms of Nonvoting Political Participation Compared to other major racial groups in the United States, Asian Americans have a particularly difficult time gaining access to the ballot because of restrictions set by the legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government to block their immigration and naturalization. Before 1952, not all Asian nationals were able to petition for becoming citizens through naturalization, and it was only with the lifting of national origin quota restrictions in 1965 that Asian nationals were able to receive an equal opportunity to apply for an entry visa. During the prolonged era of immigration exclusion and political discrimination, groups of immigrant laborers and their leaders managed to flex their political muscles by forming umbrella community organizations and challenged almost every unjust law and policy through the American court system (Chan 1991; McClain 1994). They not only fought for the rights to enter and stay; they also battled for the rights to receive equal education, own business and property, and to marry outside of one’s race. In the process, they also lobbied elected officials, rallied against ethnic violence, staged strikes for workers’ rights, and raised funds for homeland liberation and moderation projects (Lien 2001).
