Posted on

#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

Posted on

#20: Nation’s Founders Welcomed Immigrants to USA

Our nation’s founders had a profound vision for our new country. It would open its doors to nearly all comers escaping persecution in its many forms across the World.

While slavery was certainly a blind spot for them and natives were persecuted, the founders firmly established the principle that the United States would offer asylum to those persecuted from throughout the World.

Here are some quotations from our Founding Fathers:

George Washington

“I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.”

Thomas Paine

“The United States should be an asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty.”

John Jay

“The portals of the temple we have raised to freedom shall be thrown wide, as an asylum to mankind. America shall receive to her bosom and comfort and cheer the oppressed, the miserable and the poor of every nation and of every clime.”

Thomas Jefferson

“Shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the [natives] of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe? …. might not the general character and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated to everyone manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his life and fortunes permanently with us.”

Patrick Henry

“Make it [the United States] the home of the skillful, the industrious, the fortunate, the happy, as well as the asylum of the distressed …. Let but this, our celebrated goddess, Liberty, stretch forth her fair hand toward the people of the old world–tell them to come, and bid them welcome.”

George Washington

“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.”

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