# John F. Kennedy — "a nation of immigrants" > [!quote] "Every American who ever lived, with the exception of one group, was either an immigrant himself or a descendant of immigrants." > — John F. Kennedy, *A Nation of Immigrants* (Anti-Defamation League, 1958; expanded posthumous edition 1964) ## Context Kennedy wrote the original pamphlet in 1958 for the Anti-Defamation League's series on immigration, while a senator. As president he was expanding it into a full book and using it to argue for abolishing the national-origins quota system; he was assassinated before the revisions were finished, and the expanded edition appeared in 1964 with an introduction by Robert F. Kennedy. The "one group" Kennedy excepts is Native Americans. ## Why this matters This is where the phrase becomes a *brand*. "A nation of immigrants" had floated through American rhetoric for decades, but Kennedy's title fixed it as the canonical self-description of the country — the formulation that every subsequent president, Republican and Democrat, would reach for. The book was also the intellectual blueprint for the [[Hart-Celler Act]] of 1965: the policy [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] signed was the legislative form of Kennedy's argument. ## Verification - **Primary source:** John F. Kennedy, *A Nation of Immigrants* (Anti-Defamation League, 1958; Harper & Row expanded edition, 1964). See the [JFK Presidential Library, "JFK and A Nation of Immigrants"](https://www.jfklibrary.org/about-us/social-media-podcasts-and-apps/jfk35-podcast/season-1/jfk-and-a-nation-of-immigrants) and the [JFK Library store edition listing](https://store.jfklibrary.org/products/a-nation-of-immigrants). - **Status:** Verbatim from the published text. Undisputed. ## Related quotes - [[Franklin D. Roosevelt - descended from immigrants and revolutionists]] — the same claim, two decades earlier, without the durable label. - [[Lyndon B. Johnson - nourished by so many cultures]] — Kennedy's argument enacted into law. - [[Barack Obama - we were strangers once too]] — the phrase restated, nearly verbatim, fifty-six years on. - Featured in [[Presidents on the Nation of Immigrants]].