Historically, the Presbyterian Church has taken deep interest in the welfare of immigrants and refugees. John Calvin insisted that Geneva become a haven of hospitality and hope for Protestant refugees fleeing persecution. Refugees and immigrants from England, Germany and other countries hostile toward the Protestant Reformed faith comprised the earliest Presbyterian congregations in the English colonies. The arrival of Scots-Irish immigrants spurred the evangelical and missional spirit of Presbyterians by the early 19th century, leading to intentional work with the many ethnic immigrants from around the globe who arrived in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
As a result, it is not surprising that the three primary branches of the Presbyterian Church in the 20th century – the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA) and the Presbyterian Church of the United States (PCUS) – participated in the ecumenical Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America (FCC). With its focus on the needs of people in the expanding urban parts of the country (many of whom were immigrants) and on social justice concerns, the FCC enabled these denominations to cooperate with other Protestant bodies as a potent witness for what the FCC called the “Christian view of one humanity under God.”
The FCC took the lead opposing discriminatory immigration and citizenship laws including the 1924 Asian Exclusion Act that favored immigration from northern European countries and barred immigration to the United States of people of Asian descent. During WWII, this law and our nation’s refusal to naturalize non-white immigrants became propaganda fodder for the Axis enemy. As a result, beginning in 1943, the FCC rallied support from its constituents for congressional legislation that would allow Chinese immigrants, long in this country, to obtain citizenship. While addressing laws that discriminated against one of our close allies in the war, this support provided what the FCC hoped would be a wedge post-war to removing all racially discriminatory bars to immigration or citizenship.
Between 1943 and 1948, the FCC supported congressional bills that removed discrimination against China, India, the Philippine Islands and Japan in our immigration and naturalization laws. FCC president Walter Van Kirk testified before Congress numerous times. He corresponded faithfully with congressional leaders regarding pending legislation and successfully obtained thousands of supporting testimonials from lay and clerical leaders of various Protestant denominations.
The FCC argued very cogently that “racial discrimination … does violence to the Christian view of one humanity under God, is contrary to the democratic principles upon which this country was founded, and to proved scientific facts.” (This final point referred to the growing understanding in the 1940s that race was not a biological construct but a sociocultural idea.)
The argument of the FCC dovetailed with efforts by Presbyterian denominations. For example, in 1948 the PCUSA General Assembly moved that Congress adopt a pending bill to “provide the privilege of becoming naturalized citizens of the United States to all immigrants having a legal right to permanent residence, and to place all Asiatic and Pacific peoples on the same basis in immigration law.” While the PCUS chose not to address “race and color provisions,” it did call on the country to relax its immigration quotas in order to admit “a substantial number” of displaced refugees from Europe — those very individuals our country had turned away when they tried to flee Hitler’s menace. Although the U.S. would not completely remove race-based immigration and naturalization quotas until the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act, these efforts to faithfully witness to Christ’s call to unity and mercy deeply influenced our nation and our church.
From the riches of our shared history: wisdom to guide us.
Beth Shalom Hessel is the executive director of the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia.
