From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
The Expatriation Act of 1907 and Two African American Women from Kentucky
(start date: 1942 - end date: 1945)On March 2, 1907, the US Expatriation Act became law. A woman with a U.S. citizenship could be stripped of that citizenship if she married a man who was a non-citizen. The wife would assume the citizenship of her husband. At the termination of the marriage the woman could retain her U.S. citizenship.
On September 22, 1922, the Expatriation Act was repealed by the Married Women's Independent Nationality Act. Women who thought they had lost their citizenship due to the 1907 Expatriation Act had to file a petition for naturalization in order to regain their citizenship.
Sources: Megan Hacker. "When saying 'I Do' meant giving up your citizenship." Prologue Magazine, Spring 2014, v.46, no.1, Genealogy Notes. (Online at National Archives.); "Expatriation Act of 1907." Immigration History webpage, 2019, (online); see "Expatriation," pp.562-563, in the Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties by Paul Finkelman; Batlan, Felice. “She was surprised and furious" : expatriation, suffrage, immigration, and the fragility of women's citizenship, 1907-1940. Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, XV, 2020, pp.315-349 (online .pdf).
Two African American women from Kentucky who filed to regain their US citizenships were Nettie Louise Mosby Penn and Mary Ann Wilson Hiramatsu. The women were no longer living in Kentucky when they got married. Both submitted their U.S. Department of Justice naturalization applications in the states where they lived.
Nettie Louise Mosby Penn was born April 30, 1863, in Paducah, KY. It is not known if she or her family were enslaved. Nettie was a teacher in Midway, KY, around 1888. She would become the wife of Dr. Abelard Rudolph Penn who was born in Virgin Gorda, British West Indies. The couple married in Chicago, IL, on September 11, 1913. Nettie L. M. Penn was an 81-year-old housewife who was living in Evanston, IL, when she submitted her US Naturalization application on March 21, 1945. The following year, Nettie Louise Mosby Penn died on June 21, 1946. She is buried at Sunset Memorial Lawns in Northbrook, IL.
Sources: "A Midway endorsement." Maysville Republican, 03 November 1888, p. 2; Ancestry.com; see Nettie L. Penn at Find a Grave; see attached copy of Nettie Louise Penn's naturalization application from Family Search.
Mary Ann Wilson Hiramatsu was born August 9, 1878, in New Castle, KY, the daughter of William Wilson and Mima Aubury. She was the wife of Sago Mayo Hiramatsu who was born in Japan. Though, the couple's marriage certificate has the husband's name as S. Hiramatsu. They were married May 23, 1910, in Batavia, OH, and both gave their occupations as domestics.
Sago Hiramatsu, b.1874 in Japan, is enumerated as widowed in the 1930 US Census. It was noted that he was 21 years old at his first marriage. In 1930, he was a roomer at the home of Ada Tanner in Chicago and he was employed as a butler for a private family. Sago Hiramatsu is also enumerated in the 1950 US Census as widowed and he was said to have been a naturalized citizen. He lived alone at LaSalle Mansions in Chicago.
In 1940, Mary Ann W. Hiramatsu was enumerated in the US Census as working as a maid for a private family. She was not enumerated as living with her husband in the U.S. Census records. Mary Ann W. Hiramatsu was 63 years old when she submitted her US Naturalization application on July 17, 1942. It was noted that she did not know of her husband's whereabouts.
Mary Ann Wilson Hiramatsu was repatriated as a US citizen. She had been living in Toledo, OH, for 41 years when she died of cancer on June 15, 1955, at the Maumee Valley Hospital in Toledo. She was buried in New Castle, KY.
Sources: "Mary Ann Hiramatsu." The Blade (Toledo, OH), 17 June 1955, p.30; Ancestry.com; see attached copy of Mary Ann Hiramatsu's naturalization application from Family Search; see Mary Ann Wilson in the US Social Security Application and Claims Index in Ancestry.
*Repatriation/Naturalization Petitions are available onlne at Ancestry and at FamilySearch.