Pledge of Allegience: How Was It Integrated Into the School System?

Introduction

As a student attending public school in the U.S., it is a routinely thing to state the Pledge of Allegiance everyday in the mornings ever since being placed in kindergarten. Most people probably have never given the thought of what the pledge is, and why we say it all the time in school. The thought that everybody was mindlessly saying a few lines every single day without knowing how we got to this point in the first place struck my curiosity. This got me wondering; what is the pledge’s history, and how did it become apart of our school system?

Historical Context

Origins

Throughout history, the “pledge” has been rewritten and revised by different people. The original idea of a pledge was brought up around after the Civil War as a way to show patriotism towards the United States. The idea of a vow started to arise at around 1885, when war veteran Colenel George Balch came up with the original simpler version that read “We give our heads and our hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag.” The vow was somewhat integrated into schools since he was a part of New York’s Boad of Education. 

Francis Bellamy and the Youth’s Companion

At this time, patriotism wasn’t as present than current days. The U.S. flag was rarely present in schools. A magazine group known as the “Youth’s Companion” wanted to change that. The owners of the magazine company, Daniel Ford, and James Upham, had the idea to promote the flag being used in schools by using Columbus day to sell them. So, they began a campaign to sell U.S. flags to children and their schools in 1888, and they sold about 26,000 flags by 1892.

Later on in 1892, a christian socialist named Francis Bellamy was hired by the “Youth’s Companion” to write a salute that would honor the 400th anniversary of Columbus, and to further the plan of integrating the flag into the school system. Bellany wanted to incorporate the French Revolution motto “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” His version read “I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” which is similar to the pledge that we have currently. 

Millions of children in schools were taking part in Columbus Day celebrations and ceremonies in 1892, which meant millions of kids, teacher, schools, and individuals in general would be saying the pledge. Bellany’s salute gained lots of popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was the main catalyst for how the pledge was put in place in school systems to be said every morning. 

Changed Made Over Time

Of course, we can tell that Bellany’s original pledge had been changed and revised over the years since 1892. During the 1880’s and 1920’s, there was a large increase in immigrants coming the the United States, which meant that there would be more immigrant children being put into schools.  In 1923-1924, there was a change from the National Flag Conference. They changed Bellany’s words of “to my flag” into “to the flag of the United States” then to “United States of America.” They wanted to make it clear that the pledge was meant for the United States. It wasn’t until 1942 when the Congress officially recognized it as the “Pledge of Allegiance,” and was added to the U.S. National Flag Code. 

Of course, some legislations in states had made it a requirement to recite the pledge now that it was recognized by Congress. In the first case of the pledge in 1940 of the Minersville School Districs v. Gobitis case, it was concluded that public schools could force students to salute the flag. However,in 1943, with the West Virginia v. Barnette case, the Supreme Court ruled that schoolchildren could not be forced into reciting the pledge as it went against freedom of speech as stated in the First Clause of the First Amendment.

Another change was made with the physical salute that went along with the flag. Originally, the pledge was said with an uplifted right-handed salute. Because this resembled the Hitler salute, it was discontinued after WWII, and was replaced with putting the right hand over the heart. 

In 1951, the phrase “under God” was added as a campaign started by the Knights of Columbus. As a Catholic organization (well known for their patriotism). They began to state these ideas to members of Congress, and was later brought up in the House of Representatives by Congressman Louis Rabault (D-Mich) in 1954. He stated the adding the phrase would “Bring to [our schoolchildren/students] a deeper meaning and understanding of real patriotism.” He also criticized that adding the phrase was crucial during this time to combat communism as the Cold War was occuring during the time. 

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was also looking for other ways to make communism ideals to seem incompatible with American ideals, so he was also in favor of Rabaults proposal. In June, Congress passed the resolution of writing in the phrase “under God” into the pledge, and on June 14, 1954, President Eisenhower signed it into law. He also stated that “Without Gos, there could be no form of American Government,” and “the millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty. To anyone who truly loves America, nothing could be more inspiring than to contemplate the re-dedication of our youth, in each school morning, to our country’s true meaning.” So now, we have our current pledge “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America; and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Of course, there has been some controversy over the addition of the phrase. There have been cases over the constitutionality of the added phrase, such as 2004’s Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, 2014’s Jane Doe v. Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, and many other lawsuits to challenge the pledge.

Conclusion

The whole purpose of the pledge was that it was meant to be integrated into school systems to teach students about “american patriotism,” and has been dated back since 1892. It has also been revised and rewritten multiple times. The phrase “under god” was originally a plan to combat the ideals of communism during Cold War times. However, it has also sparked some controversy over how other people have interpreted the pledge. It has been questioned over whether the requirement of saluting it everyday was constitutional as well. The pledge has an interesting amount of history integrated into it, as it was involved with american flag campaigns, influenced by WWII and the Cold War, and has been challenged multiple times. 

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