In 1998, Alice Wong paid a visit to the National Archives Regional Offices in San Bruno, California.

The 19-year-old was looking for the immigration records of her great-grandfather.

Alice's grandfather had suggested the research trip.

He had picked up a Chinese language newspaper near his home in Sacramento

and noticed a headline about the greatfather Alice knew nothing about.

The college student wasn't prepared for the welcome she received.

An archive's employee asked for her autograph,

and she was introduced to the entire staff with this. This is

Wong Kim Marks great granddaughter. The newspaper article that prompted Alice's

visit celebrated the 100th anniversary of a somewhat obscure

Supreme Court case, United States versus Wong-Kimark.

In the late 19th century, Wong-Kimmark was a cook working in California, the state where he'd been born in 1873.

He was a son of Chinese immigrants who'd ended up in San Francisco.

In 1889, Wong embarked on the first of a number of long boat trips to China.

Such voyages were difficult and not just because of the expense.

And that was because an easy return to the United States wasn't guaranteed for someone like Wong.

Each trip required Wong to take pictures of himself and to find witnesses, usually white men,

to verify his right to return to the United States.

Even then, officials sometimes found excuses to keep even American-born Chinese like Wong from reentry.

This was a period of intense anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, for instance,

made it impossible for Chinese-born immigrants to become naturalized citizens,

...