Ramtin Arablouei

All of a sudden, your wheels lose traction with the road. The paramedics will later tell you you're a lucky one. As you crawl out of the driver's window, you think to yourself, what happened? How could driving a brand new car end up with me lying on the road?

The press got wind of the story, along with Congress.

Roach got up and said that when he first heard of the allegations against GM, he was shocked. He immediately ordered a statement to be released denying GM's involvement. But he discovered, quote, to my dismay, we were indeed involved.

Senator Rybakov declared in front of the Senate committee that Ralph Nader was squeaky clean. He said, quote, they put you through the mill and they haven't found a damn thing out against you.

This public apology couldn't have been a better press moment for Nader's crusade. Try to imagine how monumental this would have been. It would be like if Elon Musk apologized for harassing a critic of Tesla. It would be front page news. And it was. People were outraged that a major American corporation would attempt to intimidate a whistleblower. GM's plan to discredit Nader had backfired.

But he kept at it, and Joan Claybrook and Representative Mackey introduced their bill. And within a few short months, the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act passed into law.

Ralph Nader had won his first victory on behalf of the American consumer. And he was just getting started. That's coming up.

All around him, Nader could see how people were being sold shoddy goods.

And expected to live and work in unsafe conditions.

So Nader used his newly found fame to bring these issues to the forefront and galvanize people into taking action as consumers and form a movement.

It started off small, with Nader calling law students, including from his alma mater, Harvard, in search of people eager to make change.

It worked. These students knew who he was, and they wanted in.

Nader had plenty of work for them, and thanks to a settlement with GM, he had money to fund it.

These young idealistic lawyers and students came to be called experts. Nader's Raiders.

Joan Claybrook, looking to get out of government work for a while, believed in Nader and joined.

So if you're feeling skeptical, we get it. But bear with us, because before Ralph Nader was infamous, he was famous.

They started with the Federal Trade Commission.

Then they went after the Food and Drug Administration.

And kept going all the way to the halls of Congress.

The driving force of the consumer movement was a reinvigorated view of democracy, where everyone was a consumer and everyone participated. People really responded to this message. Across the country, local consumer groups popped up.

It wasn't long before Congress began to respond to Ralph Nader and the public's demands for change.

They got what now might seem like common sense protections passed.

OSHA. The Clean Air Act. Laws that have made American life healthier and safer. And it wasn't just environmental protections. Nader also fought to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act to increase the public's access to federal data and records.

A few months after their softball game in Georgia, Jimmy Carter wins the presidential election. At the election celebration, he promised to be a president for the people.

And it looked like a real win for the consumer rights movement. Many former Nader's raiders actually joined Carter's administration. But not Nader.

Former allies like Joan Claybrook, who he publicly accused of going too easy on the car industry's rollout of airbags.

Nader wasn't going to hold back against friends or foes. He was still fighting for the consumer, and his number one goal was to finally get the consumer protection agency he'd been fighting for four years created.

The build created had come close several times, but never quite made it through. The hope was that Carter would be able to push it through.

In 1978, the effort to create the Consumer Protection Agency came to a grinding end.

the right to clean drinking water, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, whistleblower protections, the Freedom of Information Act, and more. Nader was instrumental in all of them.

His activism and efforts spurred the modern consumer movement, a movement fueled by the idea that public citizens, consumers, people like you and me, can and should hold governments and corporations accountable to our needs.

But Ralph Nader wasn't gone from the public eye. Throughout the 80s and 90s, he won some key fights for consumers, like finally making airbags a federal requirement and rolling back steep car insurance rates in California.

Today, Nader is mostly known for his run for president in the year 2000, which many Democrats say cost Al Gore the election against George W. Bush. From Raiders to Jimmy Carter, many of Nader's longstanding allies turned on him.

People were angry.

And even now, more than 20 years later, Ralph Nader's presidential ambitions still continue to eclipse his past work as a consumer advocate for many people. So when we interviewed him for this episode, we had to ask him about it. You ran for president in 2000. You got a lot of criticism for, quote unquote, I'm putting air quotes here, ruining the election, right, for the Democrats, et cetera.

Since that time, we've seen similar attacks to other third party candidates or people who are running outside of the Republican and Democratic system. Do you feel like the results of the elections we've seen ever since, where we are today... validates your run or further gives weight to the people who criticized you?

Product recalls reached a seven-year high in the U.S. in 2023.

Almost 50% of the U.S. 's tap water could contain forever chemicals, which have been linked to certain cancers and decreased fertility.

So it's worth revisiting the question that Ralph Nader and the consumer movement posed for all of us. What kind of government do we want? And what role do we play in it?

How much of it do you think has to do with the zeitgeist, the culture at that time in the 1960s and 70s, where there was a kind of what we would call now a kind of punk rock, anti-establishment, we're tired of tradition, we're trying to push through and create a new world culture, right? Because to me, it feels like I didn't grow up as a millennial.

The year is 1960.

I didn't grow up with that similar kind of broader culture. There's a lot more cynicism now towards what is capable of being done, how much change can actually be made. How much of it had to do with the culture of that time?

Paul Sabin says Nader's legacy is complicated, and not just because of his political ambitions.

By becoming the nation's critic, he also helped to sow a mistrust in the government that Reagan seized on, and which we live with today.

So, where do we go from here?

And I'm Ramtin Adablui. And you've been listening to ThruLine from NPR.

Thank you to Brandon Ongsi, Phil Harrell, Dan Girma, Adrian Martinez, Devin Katiyama, Christina Kim, Anya Steinberg, Peter Balanon-Rosen, and Lawrence Wu for their voiceover work.

And as always, thank you to Johannes Dergi, Edith Chapin, and Colin Campbell.

Thanks for listening.

And I'm Ramtin Arablui. Today on the show, the story of consumer activism in the U.S. and what we can learn from Ralph Nader's wins and losses.

You've got an urge to hit the open road, to touch the black asphalt of the nation's new interstate highways that are being built all around the country.

Now, all you need is the perfect car.

Compact, sleek, a thing of beauty. Have a safe drive. You turn on your car radio and that iconic summer place song starts playing. When you hit the highway, you roll your window down, letting the wind rush through your hair. This is the American dream, riding in an American car on an American road, boundless and free.

As glamorous as that may sound, solving the mystery of these grisly car crash deaths mostly involved a lot of reading of very wonky documents. And I mean a lot. Nader sifted through court documents and case law. He dug into a whole series of research studies from Cornell Medical College, funded by Ford, Chrysler, and the Pentagon, that looked into what could make cars safer.

This is a CBS report about that research.

Like any good detective, Nader even pounded the pavement. What he found was that the auto industry knew that it was cars themselves that were unsafe. Doctors and researchers had repeatedly recommended features to add to the cars to make them safe. Seatbelts, padded dash panels, rollover bars. But the carmakers often shied away from putting these features into cars on the market.

So Nader set out to take down the auto industry. To do that, he knew he was going to need to harness the power of the consumer.

That's President John F. Kennedy speaking in 1962, and he was identifying a powerful new current in American life.

This is Paul Sabin. He's a professor of history and American studies at Yale University.

There was a growing call for consumers to take up that charge themselves, and Nader was at the front of the line.

When you come up across a slight turn, you keep your foot on the gas, cruising along. For a moment, you feel the wheels slip, the car no longer in your control. But then it comes back again. You think it's fine. It's a brand new car right off the dealership block. You come up on another turn, this time a wider one. You stay the course when...

Years later, a government study found that the Corvair wasn't any more dangerous than other similar cars. Nader disputed the study. But by that time, there was no turning back the movement Nader had started. In response to the criticism, GM created a position for coordinator of auto safety. But Nader's book wasn't just about exposing a problem with the Corvair or even with General Motors.

It was about revealing failures across the entire auto industry.

Wong Kim Ark's parents, Wee Lee and Wong C. Ping, came to the United States, like many Chinese immigrants, looking for work. Most of these immigrants were men coming to build the railroads or to work as agricultural field hands or to search for gold in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Wong Kim Ark's parents did something different.

They opened what was basically a grocery store in San Francisco.

And at some point in the early 1870s, the records aren't totally clear. They welcomed a new baby into the world, Wong Kim Ark.

This is probably because Chinese people were not welcome in many other parts of San Francisco. And this pattern followed in other cities with growing Chinese populations. In response, Chinatowns popped up in cities all over the U.S. It was a way for Chinese immigrants to band together, form communities, and try to keep themselves safe in an increasingly hostile country.

But sometimes these enclaves became a target.

Where did all this anger towards Chinese immigrants come from? Most people in the U.S. probably would have never encountered a Chinese immigrant. Yet in the last half of the 19th century, anti-Chinese sentiment was everywhere.

There really wasn't much truth to this idea. Chinese immigrants made up a very tiny percentage of the population of the United States in the 19th century. But this narrative, pushed by politicians and printed in the newspapers, became increasingly accepted.

It's like a city within a city. And you can feel its history in the sights, sounds, smells, and flavors in every alley, on every corner.

And this effort didn't just come in the form of violent mob attacks. It was cemented into law. In 1882, Congress passed a bill called the Chinese Exclusion Act.

This is Jason Oliver Chang.

Jason says that as soon as the law passed, customs officials around the country began looking for Chinese laborers who might be in the U.S. in violation of the law.

This place has a lot of stories to tell.

There was also the Page Act, which barred all Chinese women, except for the wives of merchants, from entering the United States. There was also the Geary Act that required all Chinese immigrants to constantly walk around with identification papers.

And for many Chinese people in the U.S., the message was clear.

Sandra Wong, our editor, Julie, one of the many Julies you'll hear in this episode, is there to meet Sandra and a local historian of sorts named Julie Su.

He had no idea that he would soon be stuck on a steamship off the coast of California within sight of his hometown, told by his own government that he was not allowed back into the country of his birth, that all of a sudden he was not a citizen.

Julie Su is an attorney who grew up in San Francisco. She met Sandra Wong years ago. They were brought together by the story of one of Chinatown's most legendary residents, Wong Kim Ark.

751 Sacramento Street. Back then, in the late 1800s, when Wong Kim Ark was born, it was a storefront with an apartment above the shop. Today, it's a school in the middle of a quiet side street, just downhill from the main tourist drag.

The school is a beautiful red, green, and white building. It's designed in a classic Chinese style. Raised pavilions, ornate paneling covering the windows, curved shingles on the roof. This should probably be a site where tourists flock because of its connection to Wong Kim Ark. He was the defendant in a court case that would forever alter U.S. immigration laws.

Chief Justice Melville Weston Fuller was the leader of the nine justices that made up the Supreme Court. And let's just say they had a bit of a reputation.

So the United States government, represented by Holmes Conrad, swung first.

This is Sandra Wong.

That was the first piece of Conrad's argument. But then he made a bigger, bolder claim.

Conrad was making this argument in 1897 in front of the Supreme Court, over 30 years after the ink on the 14th Amendment had dried.

The government made its argument. Then it was Wong Kim Ark's lawyers' chance to counter.

Their second claim is that this common law principle was adopted in the 14th Amendment.

Millions of immigrants from Europe and around the world had moved to the U.S. in the 19th century. They were encouraged to come and populate the West through laws like the Homestead Act. And their children who were born here were de facto citizens. They could vote, at least the men could, start companies, and they were making up more and more of the population.

So the Supreme Court was suddenly having to address a fundamental issue.

It took over a year, but finally, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case of U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark.

Quick note, all persons did not necessarily include Native Americans. And that's because tribes recognized by the U.S. government were considered sovereign nations with their own governments and court systems.

The court ruled that citizenship is determined by whether or not someone is born on U.S. soil, not by blood or race.

Wong Kim Ark, with the support of the Chinese six companies, had won his case. He was recognized by the U.S. government as a birthright citizen, a ruling that his lawyers knew would have an impact on generations to come. And Wong Kim Ark could finally go back to his life in San Francisco.

But Wong Kim Ark didn't need to leave the U.S. to land in trouble with authorities.

That's over $10,000 in today's money.

Today, on the corner of Jackson Street and Grant Avenue in San Francisco, you'll find a huge mural depicting the faces of some famous Asian American people. In the bottom is an image of a 30-something Wong Kim Ark. He's wearing all black, his eyebrows are raised, and has a slight smile on his face. You could almost call his look hopeful. Hope.

That can be easy to miss in this tale of struggle and resistance. But the truth is, Wong Kim Ark, decade after decade, continued to live his life between his homeland, the United States, and where his wife and children lived, China. He was even able to bring some of his offspring to live in the U.S.

Wong-Yuk Jim grew up in the U.S. He would eventually join the U.S. military and worked as a merchant marine. He would get married to a Japanese-American woman and start a family.

Wong Yook Jim would name one of his daughters Sandra, Sandra Wong, Wong Kim Ark's great-granddaughter.

Wong Kim Ark would go back to visit China one last time in 1931. He was in his 60s. He never came home to the U.S. It isn't just on that street in Chinatown that Wong Kim Ark's image looms large. The ruling in the U.S. versus Wong Kim Ark has remained firmly in place even though it has and will continue to be challenged.

Wong Kim Ark's fight for recognition may not have made his life that much easier, but his sacrifices cleared a path for his descendants and for the descendants of millions of others. For my son, whose rights as a citizen are secured by birth. For the millions of others whose rights are secured by the soil and not by their skin color or ethnicity.

And he helped make real the aspirational language of our nation's founding document.

That's it for this week's show. I'm Ramtin Arablui.

This episode was produced by me.

Lawrence Wu.

Victor Ibeez.

Thanks to Casey Murrell, Don Gagne, Corey Turner, Blaise Adler-Ivanbrook, Lawrence Wu, Casey Miner, Amiri Tulla, Christina Kim, and Devin Katiyama for their voiceover work. Thank you to the Chinese Historical Society of America for all their help. Thanks also to Tamar Charney and Anya Grundman.

This episode was mixed by Josh Newell.

And finally, if you have an idea or like something you heard on the show, please write us at ThruLine at NPR.org.

He fought for his birthright citizenship, the idea that, with some small exceptions, if you're born in the United States, then you're automatically a citizen. A concept that isn't foreign for many of us. I immigrated to the US from Iran as a child, but my son, who was born in Maryland, is the first person in my entire family to be a US citizen because he was born here.

Many of the staff on ThruLine are either first, second, or third generation immigrants who have some experience with the complexities of this legal principle. It's easy to think that it's always been this way. But the question of who is an American has always been up for debate.

And the answer to that question is always a product of the political, social, and economic realities of when it's being asked. It's an issue that's still contested today.

In this episode of ThruLine from NPR, we're gonna experience Wong Kim Ark's story and learn how his legal battle changed the debate about who gets to be an American.

This is Throughline editor Julie Kane walking in Chinatown, San Francisco, on a cool Sunday afternoon. She's in one of the oldest Chinatowns in the world, a place where Chinese immigrants have been moving to for over 150 years. It takes up about 24 city blocks, winding up and down steep San Francisco hills.

This is Amanda Frost. Amanda is a law professor at the University of Virginia and has practiced immigration law for years.

And this is Carol Nakanoff.

Carol co-wrote a book all about Wong Kim Ark.

Hi, I'm Ramteen Arablui from ThruLine. Electricity, internet, cell service, all the things we rely on every day can be unreliable or inaccessible in an emergency. But through any storm or crisis, radio is a lifeline. Support the resource that's here for you no matter what. Give today at donate.npr.org.