Pledge of Allegiance

The Pledge of Allegiance is an important tradition of American education that dates back to the early 1890s when James Upham, the head of circulation at the children's magazine The Youth's Companion, developed a campaign that encouraged children across the United States to raise money for the purchase of flags in their classrooms. As a result of his, and the children's, efforts over 30,000 flags were eventually purchased across the country.

With the success of the flag campaign, Upham decided to create a pledge that students would recite each morning as the flag was raised in their classroom or school. Francis J. Bellamy, one of the magazine's editors, actually wrote the pledge. Heavily involved in the promotion of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (where The Youth's Companion was based). Bellamy made the pledge an important component of the plans he put together to celebrate Columbus Day (October 12) as a national holiday. As a result, federal education officials sent out copies of Bellamy's pledge to teachers throughout the nation.

The Pledge of Allegiance was consciously created as a means of inspiring patriotism among public school children, an idea that was thought to be particularly important with recently arrived immigrant populations. Often students would mindlessly repeat the pledge, however, without understanding its meaning, sometimes even substituting what they thought were the words, rather than its actual content. Amusing examples of these mistakes include: “I pledge the pigeons to the flag,” “and to the republic for witches stands,” “one nation under guard,” “invisible” “with liberty and jelly for all.”

In spite of the inaccuracies of student recitations of the pledge, its daily recitation quickly became part of the culture of American schools. Its official content, however, did not remain fixed. Bellamy's original pledge (1892) was: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands—one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” At National Flag Conferences held in 1923 and 1924, the pledge was changed to: “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.” In 1954 the pledge was changed once more by resolution of the U.S. Congress to include the words “under God”: “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.”

The pledge has often engendered controversy. In 1940, the Supreme Court decided in the case of Minersville School District v. Gobitis that children who refused to salute the flag as a part of regular school exercises could be compelled to do so. That decision was overturned in 1943 in the Supreme Court decision of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette. In this decision, Justices Hugo Black and William Douglas reasoned that students had the right to remain silent and not take place in the pledge ceremony. According to them: “Words uttered under coercion are proof of loyalty to nothing, but self interest. Love of country must spring from willing hearts and free minds.”

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