King Manor Museum, the Jamaica, Queens home of Founding Father and Constitution framer Rufus King, will be hosting a naturalization ceremony, an event that will welcome up to 75 new citizens to our country, on September 17, 2014 at 11 a.m., the 227th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution.

This significant day in the life of soon-to-be citizens will be all the more memorable as they take their oath in the shadow of the home of one of the thirty-nine signers of the Constitution they will swear to support.

King Manor is steeped in the history of our great country. Rufus King resided in , what is now one of the most diverse neighborhoods in , from 1805 until his death in 1827. His contemporaries recognized him as one of the greatest statesmen of the era. King’s political career was only just beginning when he signed the Constitution in 1787. He became one of the first two Senators for under the new Constitution, eventually serving four terms. He was ambassador to from 1796-1803 and he was an outspoken opponent of slavery throughout his long political career. After King’s death, his eldest son John Alsop King lived at King Manor and served as a United States Congressman (1849-1851) and ’s Governor (1857-1859), carrying on his father’s anti-slavery tradition.

We can think of no better place to celebrate the freedoms that come with American citizenship than at King Manor, the home of a family who believed that freedom for some must be freedom for all.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will conduct the ceremony, and the Honorable Margo K. Brodie of the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, will administer the Oath of Allegiance. Many of the citizenship candidates live in the local community. The museum has enjoyed a long and successful relationship with our neighbors, and we wish to celebrate this important day with them as well. Jamaica is largely a community of immigrants; many residents hail from the Caribbean, Central and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

The museum has planned a memorable occasion for our new citizens. Elected officials have been invited to contribute their remarks to the ceremony and new citizens and their families and friends will hear the national anthem sung and watch a color guard ceremoniously present the American flag.

Following the oath ceremony and remarks, we will invite citizens into King Manor to sign their names to a replica of the U.S. Constitution and to have their photos taken with a life size statue of Rufus King.
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