In 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Takao Ozawa—a twenty-eight-year resident of the United States, a graduate of Berkeley High School, a former student at UC Berkeley, the father of two American children, and a practicing Christian—in his quest to become a U.S. citizen. Because he was neither a “free white man” nor a person of African descent, the Court ruled, his race precluded him from any right to citizenship under the Naturalization Act of 1906. Finally, in May 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Johnson-Reed Act, effectively shutting the doors to further Japanese
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