Unbecoming Americans: Writing Race and Nation from the Shadows of Citizenship, 1945-1960

Ellis Island, long symbolizing hope and new beginnings for immigrants, harbored a darker narrative during the early Cold War as a detention center for suspected communists and political radicals. This study reveals how the 1950 Internal Security Act and the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act transformed the island into an embodiment of exclusion, isolating and deporting prominent radical voices like C. L. R. James, Claudia Jones, Carlos Bulosan, and Richard Wright. Through literary analysis, the research examines how these 'unbecoming Americans' were marginalized at the intersection of race and politics, challenging notions of citizenship during a pivotal era in U.S. history.

van Minnen, C. A. (2013). Unbecoming Americans: Writing Race and Nation from the Shadows of Citizenship, 1945-1960. Journal of American History, 100(3), 892–893. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jat396