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#42: The 2020 Census and What It Means for the Future of the United States

The National Museum of the American People, in telling the story about the making of the American People, will tell the story of how people came to be Americans through immigration and migration.

The 2020 Census found that 13.7% of the United States population was born in another country, a statistic that mirrors the numbers of the 1920 Census. In 1920, the foreign-born population was 13.1%. Over the decades, the percentage of the foreign-born population has fluctuated, and with it, the culture and social landscape of America have changed as well.

The US Census in 2020 gave a snapshot of the current American People

According to World Population Review, in 2020 the five countries that account for the most immigrants in the U.S. are Mexico, India, China, the Philippines, and El Salvador. This is a sharp contrast to what immigration looked like one hundred years ago. Between 1880 and 1920, most immigrants came from Europe.

While some have said that immigration damages our country by introducing incompatible ideas and conflicting cultures, the exact opposite is true. Yes, immigrants bring their customs, traditions, and different cultures with them when they come to a new nation, but that is not by any means a bad thing. The Europeans who came during that 1880 to 1920 surge also brought their diverse traditions and cultures with them.

Immigration has frequently been a contentious issue throughout US history. Anti-immigrant sentiments led to policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigrants from entering the country in 1882.

While resistance to immigration is nothing new, it is something that we, as a nation, should understand. Immigration is not something that the American People should fear; on the contrary, it is what makes this country so uniquely great. The growing number of foreign-born Americans is a sign of a bright future for our country.

As then-Senator Barack Obama said in his address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”

The National Museum of the American People will embrace all of the American People.

Regardless of where we all come from, what cultures and customs we brought with us, and what traditions have been passed through our family’s from generation to generation. We are all Americans now.

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#38: Latino/Hispanic Story Is Incorporated into All 4 Chapters of National Museum of the American People

Flags representing the origins of the nine largest Latino/Hispanic groups in America:
Mexican, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Cuban, Dominican, Columbian, Guatemalan, Ecuadoran, Honduran

The history of Americans of Hispanic/Latino descent is the only story, along with Native Americans, that will flow through all four chapters of the Making of the American People, the permanent exhibition of the National Museum of the American People from the first people in the Western Hemisphere through today.

In the Museum’s first chapter that goes from prehistory to the founding of the Jamestown colony in 1607, includes the story of first contact between natives and Europeans which is predominantly about Spanish and Portuguese explorers and settlers interacting with natives in the Western Hemisphere after 1492. This chapter includes the first Spanish arrival in what is now Puerto Rico in 1493 and the first Spanish settlement in what is now the United States at St. Augustine, FL in 1565.

In the second chapter from 1607 to 1820 the Museum’s story will focus on what is now the United States and all of its territories. During this period Hispanics moved into those lands, primarily in the U.S. Southwest. They also owned territory that would later be lost to the French who sold it to the newly established United States.  Likewise, Florida and the New Orleans area were Spanish territories that become part of the U.S. during this period.

In the third chapter from 1820 to 1924 the U.S. fought wars with both Mexico and Spain. As a result it acquired Hispanic lands, including California and most of the rest of the U.S. Southwest, from Mexico. Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines were obtained from Spain. Texas, which had gained independence from Spain on its own, was annexed by the U.S. during this chapter.

In the last chapter from 1924 through today, the Museum will tell the modern immigration stories from the Americas. These new arrivals have primarily come from Mexico, but large numbers have also come from other Hispanic nations and territories in the Caribbean, principally Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. The story of their journeys across the nation’s borders is one of the major issues facing our nation today.

Supporting the Museum now are 25 Hispanic/Latino organizations representing Americans from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Cuba, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia as well as blanket organizations representing a cross section of all Hispanics or Latinos.

There are already 23 eminent scholars from universities across the U.S. supporting the Museum who focus on the study of Latino and Hispanic history and culture. They and others who will join in the future will help the Museum tell its story.

While there has been a call for a separate Smithsonian museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC devoted to Latino history and culture, in December the Smithsonian announced that it would create a permanent exhibition devoted to Latino history and culture in its National Museum of American History. That museum attracts more than 3 million visitors annually and that new permanent exhibition is scheduled to open in 2020.

The story of Hispanics/Latinos told in the context of the history of all those who have become Americans will attract all groups to see their own stories and better understand everyone else’s story. One of the primary goals of the National Museum of the American People is to bring all Americans together.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#36: NMAP Will Explore a Peopling of America Program to Mark Significant US Immigration Sites

A Peopling of America program would consist of scholars at the National Museum of the American People working with National Park Service officials to identify sites throughout the nation where events of significant migration and immigration history took place. The sites would be marked with special plaques designating them as “Peopling of America National Historic Landmarks.”

The most famous immigration site in America is Ellis Island, although the ancestors of most people in our nation came before Ellis Island opened in 1892, after it closed in 1954, came through other ports, or were already on land that the U.S. took over. On the West Coast, for example, Angel Island, not far from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay, is where many immigrants from Asia arrived in the United States.

As sites are designated, and markers placed, Peopling of America themed maps could be created for the public based on regional designations and specific ethnic designations. Members of ethnic groups could tour the nation to see first hand where people from their homelands landed in the U.S. Families could tour their regions to learn about the special places where different peoples first arrived to become Americans.

The Peopling of America idea was initiated by Hawaii Sen. Daniel Akaka 20 years ago but was never implemented. With heightened interest in genealogy and using DNA to trace ancestors, this would be another way to trace one’s personal roots.

The Peopling of America National Historic Landmarks would also be used to designate original settlements and paths that were followed by groups as they moved across the country. The Landmarks will describe the key events in the immigration and migration histories of these groups.

The Peopling of America program will provide a basis for the preservation and interpretation of the movements of groups that shaped the nation, including groups that arrived on the land before our nation existed. The process could also lead to more structures and places nominated to be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Significant sites of First Peoples and the sites of both early and current tribal cultures would be marked. Trails leading westward such as the Mormon Trail, the Trail of Tears and the Santa Fe Trail could be designated for their role in the peopling of America. So too could the Underground Railroad which was followed by Southern slaves to free themselves in the North and the actual railroads that helped to move the population center of the U.S. westward.

Sites all along the Canadian and Mexican borders with the U.S could be marked as could ports and beaches throughout the U.S. and its territories.

By making Americans more aware that the places that mark our immigration and migration journeys are all around us, the National Museum of the American People will enhance our understanding of that central aspect of our nation’s uniqueness.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#35: Genes Tell About Our Ancestors’ Past Wanderings Across Our Planet

The National Museum of the American People could explore having Museum visitors participate in a DNA contribution program that could enable researchers to trace that visitor’s ancestors.

Some commercial DNA programs have become well known in recent years, such as Ancestry, 23 and Me and Familytree.com, as more people search for their personal roots.

Of those, Ancestry.com uses the world’s largest consumer DNA data base and it has a tie-in to the genealogical data base of more than 3 billion persons operated by Family Search, an organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Perhaps the Museum’s program tie in with the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project. The results of that project could be immensely helpful to the Museum in telling its story. As National Geographic reported, for decades, the primary clues to the human story came from scattered bones and artifacts. Now, scientists have found a record of ancient human migrations in the DNA of living people.

While helping to tell the first chapter of the Museum’s story starting some 20,000 years ago with the first humans arriving in the Western Hemisphere, the information from these DNA studies will also tell the migration stories of the ancestors of those contributing the DNA.

The National Geographic’s Genographic Project uses advanced genetic and computational technologies to analyze historical patterns in DNA from participants around the world. Launched in 2005, the project’s goals are to gather and analyze research data in collaboration with indigenous and traditional peoples, and to educate the general public through participation in the project where they learn their own deep ancestry.

The DNA test is done from a swab of saliva from the donor’s mouth. The DNA found in that swab is then tested for nearly 300,000 identifiers, also known as “markers,” selected to provide ancestry-relevant information. The test measures the genetic markers passed down through the generations from mother to child. For men they also look at the markers passed down from father to son.

Everyone’s DNA is tested against 250,000 ancestry-markers from around the world to discover the regional affiliation of a person’s ancestry. While modern humans started some 200,000 years ago in Africa, they have spread around the globe following thousands of diverse branches. But each branch can be traced back to their origins in Africa.

For the National Museum of the American People, those stories will begin as humans begin flowing into the Western Hemisphere and begin to form tribal groups and civilizations throughout North and South America. The groups in the hemisphere remain isolated from peoples in the rest of the world for about 20 millennia until there is contact with peoples from Europe, Asia and Africa starting a little more than 500 years ago.

DNA research will continue to fill in the many blanks of our diverse past and present and will help tell who we are, where we came from and when it happened.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#33: Play Ball!! Baseball Helped Generations of Immigrants Become Americans

2018 All Star Game in Washington, DC

The celebrated French American scholar Jacques Barzun wrote “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.”

What is it about this peculiarly American game that has appealed to generations of immigrants and victims of prejudice as a path to becoming American? The game is different from any others. For instance, there is no clock or time limit to determine when the game ends. As Yogi Berra famously said, “It’s not over until it’s over.”

While some parts of the ball field are prescribed, the field of play is different in just about every stadium. Boston has a giant green wall in a short left field dubbed the “green monster.” Kansas City has a large waterfall just beyond the center field fence. The Chicago Cubs have ivy growing on its brick outfield walls in the field of play. A home run over the right field fence in San Francisco will land in the Bay where fans in kayaks will go after it. Baltimore has a warehouse running the length of its right field which is a target for power hitters. Just about every major league team reflects its city’s personality or history in its stadium.

Baseball is known for its one-on-one confrontations between pitchers and batters which consumes most of the game. But once the batter hits the ball and runners are on base, the whole team becomes engaged in an impromptu ballet of teamwork. Perhaps it’s that combination of individualism and teamwork that makes the game so appealing to the American People.

In the early years of the 20th Century, when so many immigrants were crowded in bustling cities, the pristine green playing fields and the perfect dimensions of the baseball diamond were appealing counterpoints to their daily lives. And what other game has a 7th Inning break where everyone gets up, stretches, and sings Take Me Out to the Ballgame? And in what other sport does a fan get to keep a ball if it is hit into the stands?

Baseball is also considered the thinking person’s sport. As Berra described it, “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”

“Baseball, it is said, is only a game,” said commentator George Will. “True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.”

An exhibition by the Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia called Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American shows how Jews and other minority groups used baseball as a way to come together. At first white immigrant groups took up the game including Irish, German, Polish and Italian Americans as well as Jewish Americans who mostly came from central and eastern Europe. Later, African Americans, Latinos and Asians used baseball as part of their integration into American culture as well.

That exhibit also showed how the integration of baseball with Jackie Robinson helped lead the U.S. away from Jim Crow and into the Civil Rights movement. It showed Japanese Americans playing baseball even in internment camps during World War II. And it included the sheet music for Take Me Out to the Ballgame composed by a Polish Jewish immigrant.

Last year, about a quarter of the players on Major League rosters were foreign-born. Most came from the Dominican Republic (84), Venezuela (74), Cuba (17) and Mexico (11). But 17 other nations were also represented by at least one player in the major leagues.

Whether it is an afterschool pick-up game at a nearby park, a game at a family picnic, playing or coaching youth baseball or attending a Big League game over a season that last nine months from the beginning of Spring Training in February to the end of the World Series in October, it’s a special American Day to celebrate Opening Day every spring.

Exhibitions like Chasing Dreams could be a model for the types of travelling exhibitions that are undertaken by the National Museum of the American People.

 This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#31: In the 21st Century Immigration Has Become a Major Issue in the US and the World

As the 21st Century dawned, the U.S. was attacked by foreign terrorists in New York and Washington using hijacked aircraft as weapons. Wars in the Middle East in response to those attacks led to a refugee crisis that has engulfed much of Europe. In the U.S., a crisis has been building on our southern border for an even longer period. There has been a steady focus on immigration over the last two decades.

The National Museum of the American People will be monitoring and marking events such as these, and events we don’t now anticipate, in future years as each move has a role in defining the American People.

In the wake of the 9/11 attack the U.S. passed the Patriot Act that broadened terrorism-related criteria for deportation and broadened inadmissibility rules for noncitizens. In addition it established a foreign student monitoring program.

A year later the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act streamlined electronic border control systems for those entering and leaving the country. In 2002 the Department of Homeland Security was created and established three new agencies to monitor and protect our borders: the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 added more reasons to not admit and to deport noncitizens and increased penalties for alien smuggling. The Border Protection, Anti-terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 criminalized violations of federal immigration law.

In 2006 the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill but the House refused to consider it. The issue of immigration reform has been simmering since then. But Congress did enact the Secure Fence Act that called for more than 700 miles of reinforced fence to be built along the Mexican border in places where there had been a high level of drug trafficking and illegal immigration. In 2006, 6,000 National Guard troops were sent to the Mexican border to assist Border Patrol agents.

After Congress failed to pass an immigration reform bill in 2012, President Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy to allow those entering the U.S. before the age of 16 to apply for a work permit and two-year protection against deportation. In 2014 President Obama took executive action to delay the deportation of 5 million undocumented immigrants after meeting various conditions and he broadened the DACA program.

In 2017, as one of his first acts in office, President Trump moved to impose new restrictions on immigration from several Muslim-majority countries in conflict regions. Starting in 2018, and continuing today, the President’s effort to build a significant border wall along the Mexican border has emerged as a major national issue.

When the National Museum of the American People opens it will mark all of our nation’s significant actions to determine who the American People are … and who they will be.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#30: Irish Americans Are the 3rd Largest Ethnic Group in the US

Irish Americans comprise a little more than 10 percent of the U.S. population and are the third largest ethnic group in the nation, and on St. Patrick’s Day it sometimes seems that half the nation makes a point of wearing something green to become Irish for the day.

At the National Museum of the American People the history of Irish Americans immigrating here and what they accomplished is one of the major stories that will be told.

More than 95 percent of the earliest immigrants from Ireland were Scots-Irish, essentially Scottish peoples who migrated to Northern Ireland before coming to America between 1717 and 1775. Their story will also be told in the Museum.

The first Irish Catholics to come in the 18th Century settled in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Later the Irish Famine of the 1840’s led to a much larger surge of Irish Catholics immigrating to the United States. They primarily settled in Northeast and Midwest port cities including Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland and St. Louis.

In the early part of the 19th Century Irish immigrants were among the largest participants on large scale infrastructure projects including canals and railroads. They moved west as those projects extended the U.S. reach in that direction.

While there were about 50,000 Irish immigrants in the 1820s and 207,000 in the 1830s, about 1.7 million came during the 1840s and 1850s. Another 1.9 million arrived over the rest of the 19th Century. Fewer than 1 million came during the 20th Century.

During the Civil War some 38 Union regiments had the word “Irish” in their title.

By 1910 there were more people of Irish ancestry in New York City than in Dublin. In the 2010 Census there were 35.5 million Irish in America ranking behind only German Americans and African Americans as the largest ethnic groups in the nation.

The National Museum of the American People will embrace the immigration and migration stories of all Americans, including the Irish and Scots-Irish who have come to our shores.

We wish a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of those who celebrate it.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

 

 

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#26: 19 US Organizations Focused on Refugees, Immigrants and Immigration Reform Support NMAP

President George Washington and most of the founders of the United States envisioned the new nation as a haven for those escaping religious persecution and other forms of oppression in their homelands. In that vision they laid the seeds for America becoming the leading nation of the world economically, militarily, scientifically and culturally.

Today as the US and the world struggles with immigration and immigration issues, it is important to remember the history and impact of our nation opening – and closing — its doors to refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants from the nation’s founding through today. Future blogs will deal with immigration laws that affected the story about the making of the American people.

In recalling that history, the National Museum of the American People is proud to have the support of a broad range of organizations that focus on refugees, immigrants and immigration reform. They include:

In telling the story about the making of the American People the National Museum of the American People will be a home for all of these organizations and a beacon for the nation.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#23: 2010 Census Provides In-Depth Snapshot of US Diversity

While a map of the US showing the largest ethnic group of each county in the nation provides a broad brush view of our nation’s diversity, using actual census numbers provides a deeper window into our nation’s diversity.

Based on the 2010 Census, four groups, German American, African American, Irish American and Mexican American constitute about half of the nation’s population.

Adding English American, Italian American, Polish American, French American and those who simply say American, you get to about 75 percent of Americans. Some respondents selected more than one ancestry group or race.

Here are 33 of the largest ethnic groups based on the 2010 Census. Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian are combined here with American Indians. The total population of the US in 2010 was 308.7 million. The National Museum of the American People expects to use the 2020 Census in bringing the story of the making of the American People up to the present.This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#19: The National Museum of the American People Can Play an Instrumental Role in Our Foreign Relations


The National Museum of the American People can be expected to have an impact on our nation’s relationship with countries around the globe.

At the opening ceremony for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993, leaders of a dozen nations plus the President of the United States were in attendance. Since then, leaders of 100 countries and 3,500 foreign officials representing 132 countries have visited that museum.

That museum also established strong ties to Poland, Russian and other eastern and central European nations to obtain artifacts and access to archives. It similarly established a collegial relationship with Israel’s national Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem.

The USHMM is just one example of how a center for education and learning in our nation’s capital helps to improve our relationships abroad. The National Museum of the American People will be another important example.

THE NMAP will tell the stories of peoples coming here from every corner of Earth, most of whom had a continental sense of their forbearers and a nationality before becoming Americans.

The ties to those nationalities will be examined and mined by the NMAP to help tell the Museum’s many stories, to obtain artifacts relating to that connection, and to foster relationships between the Museum and nations throughout the world that provided the migrants who became Americans.

The Museum will help answer the question: What exactly is an American? President Reagan said: “America represents something universal in the human spirit. I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, ‘You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won’t become a German or a Turk.’ But then he added, ‘Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.’”

The unique nature of Americans representing every race, creed and nationality around the world will be highlighted by the Museum and will help bind Americans together as it faces global challenges.

By making visitors more aware of their own heritage, the Museum can spur Americans to travel to their ancestral homelands. Foreign visitors will certainly visit to learn how emigrants from their lands and nations came and became Americans and contributed to this nation’s role as a world leader.

At the opening of the National Museum of the American People a virtual United Nations of heads of state could be in attendance to help celebrate that special relationship this nation has with every other nation. As the Museum contributes to the democratization of our society it can also serve as a beacon to nations across the world that have increasingly diverse societies.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People