History of the Pledge of Allegiance

In preparation for the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the New World, The Youth’s Companion – a children’s magazine based in Boston – published on September 8, 1892 a short recitation to be used for that quadricentennial celebration. Although there is some controversy as to who was the actual author, credit is generally given to Francis Bellamy, a socialist, thirty-seven year old, ex-Baptist Minister who was then working as an assistant to the editor of the magazine. Bellamy was also a member of the National Education Association, and, with the support of President Benjamin Harrison, encouraged schools throughout the nation to use that "pledge" as part of their Columbus Day festivities. The pledge read as follows:

  • I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.
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    This version was utilized unchanged for more than thirty years. However, as increasing numbers of immigrants flowed into the county, "my Flag" became somewhat ambiguous. Thus, in 1923, those two words were replaced by "the flag of the United States," and "of America" was appended a year later.

    Over time, the Pledge was increasingly utilized in the daily activities of many schools. In 1940, the first religious conflict over this practice took place. Two children from a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses were expelled from a Pennsylvania public school for refusing to participate in the daily salute to the Flag. They maintained that such activities were prohibited by their religion, and the case eventually reached the United States Supreme Court. Although the majority opinion admitted that "[g]overnment may not interfere with organized or individual expression of belief or disbelief," it nonetheless concluded that "[t]he ultimate foundation of a free society is the binding tie of cohesive sentiment," and upheld the expulsions as reasonable exercises of the legislature and the school authorities. Pertinent to the present effort to remove "under God" from the Pledge, it should be noted that Justice Stone, in dissent, eloquently wrote:

  • Here we have such a small minority entertaining in good faith a religious belief, which is such a departure from the usual course of human conduct, that most persons are disposed to regard it with little toleration or concern. In such circumstances, careful scrutiny of legislative efforts to secure conformity of belief and opinion by a compulsory affirmation of the desired belief, is especially needful if the civil rights are to receive any protection.
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    Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586 (1940).

    The next important date in the Pledge’s history was June 22, 1942. Spurred by nationalism in the midst of the Second World War, the Pledge, for the first time, received formal official recognition. In an effort "to codify and emphasize existing rules and customs pertaining to the display and use of the flag of the United States of America," the 77th Congress passed an act comprised of eight separate sections. Section 7 set forth the Pledge and the appropriate manner in which it was to be recited. The version so codified was:

  • I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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    A year later, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case virtually identical to Gobitis. In West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), Jehovah’s Witnesses again stated that their religious beliefs did not allow salutes to symbols of temporal government. This time, however, the Court supported the complainants. Overruling the decision laid down just three years previously, Justice Jackson enunciated the ideals behind our First Amendment in a passage that has been frequently quoted since:

  • If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.
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    With that background, the Pledge was to undergo one more change. The year was 1954. World War II had ended, but the Cold War was entering into its most intense period. The United States was deeply hostile to communism, and the "Red Scare" pervaded society. Senator Joseph McCarthy spearheaded what is now recognized as one of the most shameful epochs of our history. Citizens afraid to speak. Neighbors constantly eyeing one another. Jobs lost based on hearsay. Persons jailed for espousing unpopular views. The Hollywood blacklist. And, behind it all, the abandonment of the First Amendment.

    Within this politically-charged environment, Congress simply ignored the commands of the Constitution and focused on what it perceived as one of the darkest aspects of the communist system: atheism. Casting aside its responsibility to protect all religious views in this country, it honed in on that characteristic of Soviet society. At the urging of the Knights of Columbus, a proselytizing Catholic organization, "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance, with Congress, in its own words, writing:

  • At this moment of our history the principles underlying our American Government and the American way of life are under attack by a system whose philosophy is at direct odds with our own. Our American Government is founded on the concept of the individuality and the dignity of the human being. Underlying this concept is the belief that the human person is important because he was created by God and endowed by Him with certain inalienable rights which no civil authority may usurp. The inclusion of God in our pledge therefore would further acknowledge the dependence of our people and our Government upon the moral directions of the Creator. At the same time it would serve to deny the atheistic and materialistic concepts of communism with its attendant subservience of the individual.

    • H.R. 1693, 83rd Cong., 2nd Sess. (1954) (emphasis added).

    Signed into law by President Eisenhower, the Pledge of this Nation - with its Bill of Rights assuring its citizens that the government will never engage in the purveyance of religious dogma – now had God incorporated into its fabric. The following year, "In God we Trust" would be required for all United States coins and currency, and the year after that, the same phrase would become our National Motto.