In 1890, Eduljee Sorabjee achieved a rare legal milestone by becoming one of the first South Asian immigrants to acquire American citizenship. Born in Bombay, this Parsi entrepreneur leveraged his business background, extensive travel, and claims of Persian royal heritage to successfully navigate the restrictive Naturalization Act of 1790. While the law generally reserved citizenship for “free white persons,” Sorabjee’s ability to secure his status highlights the legal ambiguity and subjective racial categorizations of the era. This moment remains a historical anomaly, as most Asian immigrants were systematically barred from naturalization for decades until the mid-20th century.
