For Immediate Release: July 19, 2006
Further information: Brent R. Carney (617) 514-1662, Brent.Carney@JFKLFoundation.org
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum will host a celebration of the naturalization of new citizens of the United States at a special ceremony presided at by The Honorable Douglas P. Woodlock, United States District Court Judge for the District of Massachusetts, on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 from 1:20 to 2:15 p.m. in the Stephen Smith Center. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall will be the keynote speaker at today’s ceremony.
More than 200 new citizens will take the oath of American citizenship at the ceremony hosted by the national memorial to President John F. Kennedy -- America’s first Irish-Catholic president -- whose own great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Ireland. The author of “A Nation of Immigrants,” John F. Kennedy observed that “Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life.”
The Naturalization Oath Ceremony is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
In celebration of their new citizenship, the Kennedy Presidential Library will present everyone with a special, commemorative edition of the Inaugural Address of President John F. Kennedy and a small American flag. A special reception, made possible by a grant from The Boston Foundation, will be held after the ceremony for new citizens and their families.