<\/a>In I Am An American: The Wong Kim Ark Story by Martha Brockenbrough with Grace Lin<\/a> readers learn the true story of Wong Kim Ark, a man born in America to Chinese immigrants in San Francisco during the Gold Rush in 1873. When racist treatment of Chinese people intensified, Kim Ark helped his parents move back to China. He went to visit them in late 1894, and upon his return was held prisoner for four months by the American authorities, who questioned his paperwork and told him he didn’t belong here.\u00a0<\/p>\n Having been born here, he maintained that he was an American citizen and had every right to be here. He had to defend himself all the way up to the Supreme Court, even though the Fourteenth Amendment (“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”) was ratified in 1868.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Eventually, he won his case. But Wong Kim Ark continued to face racist treatment, and eventually moved to China, where he died sometime after World War II.\u00a0<\/p>\n