Our Cherished Values and Ideals

Celebrating immigrants on the nation's birthday

A naturalization ceremony in the rotunda of the National Archives, 2017. Photo credit: Jeff Reed/NARA/Wikimedia Commons

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There is a Republican president in the White House, credibly accused of having authoritarian tendencies. Critics claim that he is seizing expansive executive powers, weaponizing the federal government, impounding Congressionally authorized funds, reversing the reforms of his predecessors, and challenging the rule of law. The U.S. Supreme Court is filled with Republican appointees who seem ready to overturn liberal precedents. Conflicts in the Middle East are exploding and there are major disruptions in international trade. As the United States prepares to commemorate a major anniversary of its founding, the nation debates how, what, and whether to celebrate.

The moment captured here is the early 1970s; the upcoming anniversary is the U.S. bicentennial; and the president is Richard Nixon. In this deeply conflicted period, how do the “leaders of the free world” talk about borders, immigrants, and visitors?

On July 4, 1971, President Nixon launched “The Bicentennial Era” with a televised address from the National Archives, where an original copy of the Declaration of Independence was on display. Pledging his support for “the building of an open world,” Nixon expressed his hopes for “open borders, open hearts, open minds” by 1976.

One year later, Nixon delivered a radio address that invited the world to visit the United States during the bicentennial era. “Let America be known throughout the world as the ‘land of the open door,’” the president declared. “This is the time to open our hearts and our homes and our communities to those who come to America for the first time.” “Our Bicentennial era,” he emphasized, “is a time for America to say to the nations of the world, ‘You helped to make us what we are. Come and see what wonders your countrymen have worked in this new country of ours. Come and let us say thank you.’”

Two years later, Nixon appointed John Warner, the former Navy Secretary and future Republican Senator from Virginia, to lead the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration (ARBA). After ethnic, indigenous, and racial minorities criticized ARBA for not sufficiently supporting their participation in the national celebration, the agency convened a conference that resulted in the founding of “a Bicentennial multi-ethnic and racial coalition” that would have a “direct line” to ARBA. Warner endorsed the coalition’s call for “full ethnic and racial participation in all Bicentennial planning and funding.” One participant commented, “We’re really hopeful now that all of the children have been invited to the birthday party.”

When Gerald Ford replaced Richard Nixon in August 1974, the new president followed the lead of his predecessor in presenting immigrants as key participants in the bicentennial. In fact, he nominated Marjorie Lynch, a British-born war bride and former Republican Washington state legislator, as ARBA deputy director. The Daughters of the American Revolution thought that the appointment was “downright unpatriotic” given that the revolution was “waged against some of Mrs. Lynch’s British ancestors.” With Ford’s support, Lynch successfully defended herself by stating that “the tenets of American democracy are particularly cherished when you are not born to them, but with deliberation and conviction adopt them for your own.” U.S. Senator Henry Jackson noted that “perhaps the British ought to be represented,” since several signers of the Declaration were born there; in all, eight of fifty-six signers had immigrated to the thirteen colonies.

In January 1975, ARBA sponsored another conference in Washington that focused on the participation of ethnic and racial groups in the bicentennial. Impressed by the discussions, Warner promised to “shake every money tree” to support the projects proposed at the conference and indicated that he would tell President Ford that “there has been born here a new political force, and they’ve got determination, and they expect from us a national commitment.”

Several months later, following further criticisms and consultations, Warner established the National Bicentennial Ethnic-Racial Alliance (NBERA), which would serve as an official ARBA advisory group. The appointees to NBERA, which represented white ethnic groups alongside people of color, included nine European Americans, five Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, four Native Americans, three African Americans, and three Latinos.

In July 1975, President Ford released an Independence Day statement that praised the nation’s founding generations, which included many immigrants. “As we join in Bicentennial celebrations,” Ford declared, “it is appropriate that we look to the future as well as the past…. Our ancestors, starting out with little more than faith in themselves and hope for a better life, won for us our independence and brought forth a Nation unique in both its performance and its promise.” On July Fourth, Ford delivered an address to 20,000 people and participated in a citizenship ceremony for forty-one immigrants at Fort McHenry in Maryland. “We are honored” by the actions of the new citizens, Ford stated, noting that “they have chosen what we often take for granted.”

During the bicentennial year itself, ethnic, immigrant, indigenous, racial, and religious communities responded to the national commemoration in diverse ways—boycotting, criticizing, participating, and protesting. The participants sponsored thousands of bicentennial projects that recognized the unique contributions of ethnic and immigrant communities with origins in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania. National, state, and local bicentennial officials used rhetoric and endorsed initiatives that celebrated immigrants and immigration.

Immigrants also participated by becoming citizens. On January 2, at the new US Courthouse in Philadelphia, eight-five adults and eight children were warmly welcomed as the nation’s first naturalized citizens of the bicentennial year.

A few months later, Philadelphia’s new Balch Institute, which described itself as “the world’s first and only museum dedicated to the history of ethnic groups in America,” opened with an inaugural exhibit titled “The American Kaleidoscope.” As the Inquirer explained, “What the Balch Institute refers to as ‘ethnicity,’ an awareness of and regard for one’s ethnic background, is becoming popular again.” The museum’s director, Howard Applegate, added, “The melting pot as a concept is on its way to burial. . . . We hope to be the pallbearers.”

At times, new citizens showed up old ones in their knowledge of U.S. history and civics. On Flag Day in June 1976, a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter asked twenty visitors to the Betsy Ross House what the holiday was meant to honor. Only one, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Germany, answered correctly.

In the July issue of Bicentennial Times, ARBA’s monthly newsletter, President Ford continued to present immigrants as deserving of national recognition during the bicentennial, praising them for bringing “cherished values and ideals…which, mixed with the American way, gave us our rich inheritance” and provided “the foundation for American liberty.”

The July issue of Bicentennial Times explicitly described “ethnic/racial recognition” as a “hallmark” of the national birthday celebration. “The Bicentennial,” according to the newsletter, “finds America celebrating its cultural diversity on a scale unprecedented in its 200-year history…. ‘Hyphenated Americanism,’ once frowned upon, is being recognized for its special contributions to the nation’s growth.”

When July 4, 1976, finally arrived, immigration and naturalization were key components of the celebration. An estimated 10,000 people from more than 100 nations were naturalized on July Fourth, many in mass ceremonies in Chicago, Detroit, Miami, and New York. After participating in bicentennial festivities in Valley Forge, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington on the Fourth, President Ford traveled the next day to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, where he honored the primary author of the Declaration of Independence by presiding over a naturalization ceremony for 100 new citizens. Later in the year, during Constitution Week and Citizenship Day in September, mass bicentennial naturalization ceremonies were held for thousands of new citizens in Honolulu, Boston, and Norfolk.

In its final issue, published in December 1976, Bicentennial Times declared, “America became a ‘salad bowl’ rather than a ‘melting pot’ during the Bicentennial. The distinct flavor and unique contributions of every ethnic and racial group were singled out, spotlighted and reemphasized. The amazing story of how hundreds of thousands of immigrants who built a strong, prosperous nation as they became Americans was part of the commemorations, exhibits and festivals during 1976.”

During the bicentennial era, presidential words about immigration and immigrants did not always match presidential deeds. Immigration policy reforms during the Nixon/Ford years aided many people from the Americas, Southeast Asia, and the Soviet Union, but hurt many from Mexico and many undocumented people. And the focus here on presidents and planners does not do justice to the complex ways in which ethnic, immigrant, indigenous, racial, and religious communities responded to the bicentennial, not to mention how women, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people did so.

But as we approach next year’s commemoration of the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the United States, we can marvel at the ways the nation’s Republican leaders spoke about immigrants and immigration during the country’s last grand birthday celebration. And we can be astonished that the current presidential administration would find deeply offensive—and attempt to censor, purge, and ridicule—the bicentennial-era words of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and John Warner.

Marc Stein is the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of U.S. History and Constitutional Law at San Francisco State University, the director of the OutHistory website, and the president-elect of the Organization of American Historians. His new book, Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s, is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press in 2026.