Arab American Activism

Early Arab American Activism

The challenges of economic betterment, assimilation, and the lack of a strong Pan-Arab identity limited early Arab American activism in the public sphere. However, literary and intellectual circles formed, and civic life increased. The nascent community increasingly focused on domestic and international issues.

One of its earliest causes was over racial classification and citizenship. Initially categorized as Turks and Syrians, legal battles ensued over whether Arabs were to be classified as “white” or not. Given the privileges associated with the “white” category, early organizations protested their classification as “Asiatic.” After a ruling in a Georgia court case affirmed their nonwhite status, the Association for Syrian Unity was organized and sent a delegation to lobby in Washington, D.C. Despite Arab Americans obtaining legal “white” status in 1923, this did not protect Arab immigrants from disenfranchisement and segregation in the American South, nor did it prevent immigration limits from non-European countries.

Ameen Rihani, one of the renowned members of Khalil Gibran's Pen League, lectured on Arab independence, wrote extensively against the Ottoman empire, and promoted Arab thinkers. Arabic newspapers sprung up in New York and several other cities across America, with 102 Arabic periodicals and newspapers in 1929. Articles written by expatriate Arabs, such as Rihani and Gibran, had a profound effect in the Arab world. The Pen League revolutionized Arabic prose and advocated for national independence from the postwar colonial domination of the Arab world.

The 1917 British declaration of support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine sparked an international debate. Arab American organizations advocated against the establishment of a Jewish homeland in historic Palestine, whose indigenous population is largely Arab and of multiple faiths. They wrote articles and letters to the secretary of state, spoke before Congress, and organized a protest in Brooklyn. The Palestinian Antizionism Society and the Ramallah Young Men's Society attracted 500 demonstrators to the protest.

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