[ inaudible ] when it passed in congress in 1882, it passes overwhelmingly. The vote in the house of representatives is Something Like 25037. There is a lively debate and several people, several congressmen, several senators speak eloquently against it. There is one senator from massachusetts, George Frisbee hore, almost forgotten today, he leads the fight against it. And he does for his whole life in the senate for the next 20 years. But every time it comes up for a vote in 1882, 92, 1902, it has fewer and fewer defenders and it becomes national policy. Yeah. Im struck by the dichotomy of the culture which is kinder to the chinese, and the politics. So can you talk about how that was so different, because you would think that the one would influence the other. Thats an extremely complicated question. What happens is the chinese, many chinese are coming to america, in late 1800s, and white workers accuse them of working for lower wages. And being imported here, meaning being carried in on contracts. And American Workers and unions protest that the importation of Chinese Workers in the late 1800s and they go out of their way to say, were not against chinese immigration, were just against them being brought here on contracts. Politicians in this period, the 1870s and 1880s is kind of like an era today in terms that the democratic and republican parties are virtually equal in numbers. For the last 20 years or so, there have been exceptions, but we have had some of the closest elections in American History. And now as were going to see this year, there are, like, a half dozen battleground states and whoever wins ohio, florida, a few others will likely win the election. It was very similar in the 1870s and 1880s. Republicans and democrats were nearly evenly divided. And anything that could gain a few votes could switch an election. And what politicians do is they start they claim they kind of fudge over the argument about importation, say, if we keep the chinese out, this will be good for the american economy, it will be good for the working man, and it will help the United States. And even though workers have never really been asking for this, except for several in california, it is different. But east of the rockies, workers could care less about this. But politicians see immigration as a way to demagogue votes. There is no more visceral issue in American History than race. And immigration. You combine the two, and this is the first time it is really done against the irish in the 1850s, but this is the time it really takes gains weight. And it works. The mark of a great talk is when we have to interrupt the questioning for the next speaker. Thank you, andrew. My pleasure. [ applause ] first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee. At the Democratic National convention in philadelphia, Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman nominee of a Major Political party for president of the United States. Live coverage of every minute of this Historic Convention begins monday on cspan. The cspan radio app and cspan. Org. Hillary clinton is in florida this weekend. One of her stops including a Campaign Event in miami. We will have that Live Saturday at noon eastern on cspan. As democrats prepare for their Convention Next week, there continues to be reaction to how the Gop Convention went in cleveland. Here is what president obama had to say about the fourday affair at a News Conference on friday. I did not watch the convention. I dont think thats a surprise. I got a lot of stuff to do. And they are pretty long events. But i did read some of what was said. And the one thing that i think is important to recognize is, this idea that america is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesnt really jive with the experience of most people. I hope people the next morning walked outside and the birds were chipping and the sun was out and this afternoon people will be watching their kids play on sports teams and go to the Swimming Pool and folks are going to work and getting ready for the weekend. And in particular, i think it is important just to be absolutely clear here that some of the fears that were expressed throughout the week just dont jive with the facts. So lets take two specific examples. When it comes to crime, the Violent Crime rate in america has been lower during my presidency than any time in the last three, four decades. And although it is true that we have seen an uptick in murders and Violent Crime in some cities this year, the fact of the matter is that the murder rate today, the violence rate today is far lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president. And lower than when i took office. We have just gone through a tragic period where we saw both tragedy in minnesota and baton rouge and then the insanity and the viciousness of people targeting Police Officers. And we are all heartbroken by that and were all troubled by how we can rebuild trust, support Law Enforcement and make sure the communities feel that they are being fairly policed. But the fact is that the rate of intentional killings of Police Officers is also significantly lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president. Those are facts. Thats the data. When it comes to immigration, i think americans expect that our immigration process is ordinarily and it is legal. And we have put unprecedented resources at our border. It turns out that the rate of illegal migration into the United States today is lower by twothirds than it was when Ronald Reagan was president. We have far fewer undocumented workers crossing the border today than we did in the 80s or the 90s or when george bush was president. Thats a fact. President obama will speak at the Democratic National convention in philadelphia next week. Just like the Gop Convention, we will have every minute of the event live on cspan. You can also listen on the cspan radio app and view video on demand at cspan. Org. Saturday night at 8 00 eastern, we will look back at past Democratic National conventions. Starting with the 1960 convention in los angeles with the Democratic Party selecting john f. Kennedy as their nominee. Today our concern must be with our future. For the world was changing, the old era is ending, the old ways will not do. He went on to become the youngest person elected president. We will feature notable female speakers, including u. S. Representative from texas Barbara Jordan who spoke at the 1976 convention in new york city and became the first africanamerican woman to be a keynote speaker. Our concept of governing is derived from our view of people. It is a concept deeply rooted in a set of beliefs firmly etched in the National Conscience of all of us. Then the 1984 convention in San Francisco with former new york congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro who was the first woman to be nominated for vicepresident and ann richards who in 1988 was the state treasurer for texas. She spoke at the convention in atlanta that year and later became the 45th governor of texas. Also the 1992 convention in new york city with arkansas governor bill clinton accepting his partys nomination. In the name of all those who do the work, pay the taxes, raise the kids and play by the rules, in the name of the hard working americans who make up our forgotten middle class, i proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States. Past national conventions, next saturday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Next, on American History tv, history professor rabbi Lance Sussman discusses representative Emanuel Celler a new york democrat who served in the u. S. House from 1923 to 1973. In this 50minute talk, sussman details cellers career long fight against immigration restrictions in the United States, culminating in passage of the hartceller immigration act of 1965. The lecture is part of a twoday symposium hosted by the u. S. Capital Historical Society on the history of immigration. The next speaker is lance j. Sussman, lance wears two hats in life. He is the senior rabbi at reform congregation israel in suburban philadelphia, which is the sixth oldest reform congregation in the United States. And has a illustrious history, at one time its rabbi was the only was the leading jewish abolitionist in the United States, and during the civil war ki as it was known was known as the abolitionist temple. And since then it has a long history of social activism. But in addition to that, lance has a ph. D. In history from the university of cincinnati, hes written a number of books on American Jewish history and written a number of scholarly articles as well as articles in the more popular press and i had the honor of coauthoring an article with lance on the Huffington Post this year on the brandeis confirmation, which we are also celebrating this year. Before i introduce lance, this is one of the great virtues of being the conference coordinator, i can add to the program whenever i want and i want to add one footnote to andrews paper, because i think it is relevant to everything that we will be talking about today. And that is that in 1866, when congress, 150 years ago in 1866, when congress is debating what becomes the 14th amendment, the 14th amendment begins by saying all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to their jurisdiction, ie, not the children of diplomats, are citizens of the United States. And there was a strong attempt by the delegation from california and oregon to amend that to say all persons except chinese would be citizens of the United States. And to the great credit of the United States congress, then in the hands of the antislavery Republican Party that had just led the nation to both saving the nation and ending slavery, the majority of congress simply said, no, all persons means all persons, were not going to get into the business of excluding particular groups of people. And so that in part explains the subsequent conflict over chinese immigration and chinese rights, because the 14th amendment meant their children would be citizens of the United States, even when the naturalization laws prohibited them from being naturalized. One final footnote on that before i bring on lance, during world war i, Congress Passed a law which said that if you were honorably discharged veteran, you could become a citizen of the United States automatically. But in toyota versus the United States, in the 1920s, the Supreme Court ruled that that was true except for immigrants from east asia, china and japan, who could not become citizens, even if as in the case of mr. Toyota, he served honorably in the coast guard and navy. So we have always had a kind of distinct prejudice against people from east asia that only in the post 1965 world have we changed. Now i would like to introduce Lance Sussman, who will talk to us about the 1924 act and how it relates ultimately to the 1965 civil immigration act. I should also add that lance, in addition to being a rabbi, and in addition to being a historian, has taught at a number of institutions including Hunter College and princeton when hes not busy writing sermons hes writing lectures. I dont have time to write. I just wing them. Want to thank the United States capital Historical Society for the opportunity to speak today. Especially the wonderful staff and the chair of the symposium, my friend Paul Finkelman. As you have heard, paul and i have been friends for many years and currently are collaborating on a number of projects of which this is a particularly important one to me. It is a special honor for me to be here and have an opportunity to share my thoughts about one of this countrys most important political and policy issues. An issue which affects the lives of millions of people every day in this country, and around the world, which is, of course, the issue of immigration. I also would like to read it in a much larger context. And that migration and more specifically immigration has played a consistently Important Role in Human History since our species first emerged in africa over 200,000 years ago. The movement of Indigenous People to the western hemisphere, celts into europe, the possible movement of central asians into india are all typical of our migratory species. And not surprisingly there are a number of theories, competing theorys from economic to climate based, which attempts to explain the mass movements of entire peoples within and among various nations, regions and continents. Migration, immigration, sanctuary, diaspora, deportation, and expulsion and rescue operations present challenges to International Systems of law and seriously test the proposition that every person has inalienable rights. We migrate because were human and our individual and collective humanity invariably is tested when we migrate. Not surprisingly, then, the regulation of migration by the modern nation state is complex, and pits economic, cultural and legal factors against one another. Countries variously promote, block, ignore and selectively control immigration. Immigration can be celebrated or vilified, but it can never be ignored. Immigration is also a very personal matter to me. My own familys immigrant story is central to my narrative as a person, and determinative in my choice of careers and historical work. My paternal grandfather arrived in this country from czarist russia as a child, he had no money, he had no education, and he had no skills. But by the mid 1920s, sussman and lev emerged as one of the outstanding delicatessens in east baltimore. Who knows what jacob sussmans fate would have been on the Eastern Front during world war i or during the bolshevik revolution or the russian civil war, let alone under communism and naziism in east europe. Instead, he ended up living a solidly middle class american life, and was the father of sons who won combat medals for bravery during world war ii in korea. His mothers story is more harrowing. She came to america alone, at the age of 13, in september 1938, from nazi germany. After her parents and little brother eventually joined her, they were obviously the lucky ones. They had american relatives who signed papers for them, high level political connections, sufficient funds, and a Transatlantic Network to get them into this country. But the story which really shapes me is a very different one. After arriving safely in america in 1939, my maternal grandfather max psaki worked tirelessly to bring others out of nazi germany. He even returned to germany after the nazi attack on poland, to try and save others. Except for his own family, he totally failed. The friends he sought to save were all slaughtered. Money and political connections were not enough. Indifference and even hostility within the American Jewish community to german jews sealed the fate of those max sought to save. Quote, you cant save every third cousin, one rabbi told my grandfather. My opa in turn vowed to spit on the grave of that clergyman, and in time he did. Immigration is a difficult undertaking. It requires courage, fortitude, assets, connections, luck, ways of thinking which value the stranger and the dispossessed, the endangered, and sometimes the hopeless. To value them as equals as equal to those who are secure and undisturbed. It requires an incredible faith in the humanity of the storm tossed and discarded that they too be given a chance that they will add to the richness of a host society, and not be a burden or a threat. One such individual who was a true champion of the immigrant, and particularly the refugee, a person who had incredible faith in the humanity and capacity of the storm tossed was representative Emanuel Celler, democrat of brooklyn. He alone was present in the house of representatives when the doors of america closed in 1924 and again when they began to reopen after world war ii. More than anyone else, he was responsible for the cont