Editing Albert Einstein (section)

==== US citizenship ====
[[File:Citizen-Einstein.jpg|thumb|Einstein accepting a [[Citizenship of the United States|US citizenship]] certificate from judge [[Phillip Forman]] in 1940]]
Einstein became an American citizen in 1940. Not long after settling into his career at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, he expressed his appreciation of the [[meritocracy]] in American culture compared to Europe. He recognized the "right of individuals to say and think what they pleased" without social barriers. As a result, individuals were encouraged, he said, to be more creative, a trait he valued from his early education.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=432}}

Einstein joined the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) in Princeton, where he campaigned for the [[Civil rights movement (1896–1954)|civil rights]] of African Americans. He considered racism America's "worst disease",<ref name="Jerome" /><ref name="smithsonianmag">{{cite news |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-celebrity-scientist-albert-einstein-used-fame-denounce-american-racism-180962356 |title=How Albert Einstein Used His Fame to Denounce American Racism |first=Matthew |last=Francis |date=3 March 2017 |work=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=10 February 2021 |archive-date=11 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211150143/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-celebrity-scientist-albert-einstein-used-fame-denounce-american-racism-180962356/ |url-status=live }}</ref> seeing it as {{qi|handed down from one generation to the next}}.{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2005|pp=148–149}} As part of his involvement, he corresponded with civil rights activist [[W. E. B. Du Bois]] and was prepared to testify on his behalf during his trial as an alleged foreign agent in 1951.{{sfnp|Robeson|2002|p=565}} When Einstein offered to be a character witness for Du Bois, the judge decided to drop the case.<ref name="civil"/> 

In 1946, Einstein visited [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]] in Pennsylvania, a [[historically black college]], where he was awarded an honorary degree. Lincoln was the first university in the United States to grant college degrees to African Americans; alumni include [[Langston Hughes]] and [[Thurgood Marshall]]. Einstein gave a speech about racism in America, adding, {{qi|I do not intend to be quiet about it.}}<ref name="Jerome_Isis"/> A resident of Princeton recalls that Einstein had once paid the college tuition for a black student.<ref name="civil"/> Einstein has said, {{qi|Being a Jew myself, perhaps I can understand and empathize with how black people feel as victims of discrimination}}.<ref name="smithsonianmag"/> Isaacson writes that "When [[Marian Anderson]], the black contralto, came to Princeton for a concert in 1937, the Nassau Inn refused her a room. So Einstein invited her to stay at his house on Main Street, in what was a deeply personal as well as symbolic gesture ... Whenever she returned to Princeton, she stayed with Einstein, her last visit coming just two months before he died."{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=445}}