How do views of citizenship vary by race and gender in the US? What are the underlying processes driving these differences? Scholars have studied citizenship and marginalized groups, however, few have fully considered the multiplicative impacts of race, gender, and class. I incorporate the contributions of analogous fields that interrogate this topic in different ways. This multi-method project takes an intersectional approach to studying American citizenship, thinking specifically about how women of color view themselves as citizens. I focus on the experiences of Black women. This project explores how race and gender influence Black women’s political attitudes and highlights how Black women perceive their positionality in society. Black women are politically active. Although they vote at relatively high rates, they still express that they do not feel like they are treated as equals. I examine this disconnect and explore how their attitudes about and complex engagement with the political system. I pay particular attention to the political and economic history and institutional arrangements that have impacted Black women’s status in the US. I find that Black women engaged in state building. The results show the compounded effect of race and gender. My findings demonstrate that Black women understand their citizenship to be treated as conditional.