Pledge of Allegiance

This week’s article summary is an interesting history lesson.  

The Weird History of the Pledge of Allegiance illustrates that traditions we might assume always were actually morphed over time, often due to changing societal beliefs, norms, and mores.

Until I read the article below, I didn’t know much of history of the Pledge—why and when it came to be and why and when its recitation was accompanied by putting your right hand over your heart. I would have guessed the Pledge came to be sometime before, during, or soon after the Revolutionary War. Boy, was I wrong!

But, there was one aspect of the Pledge I knew even as a little boy: that the phrase ‘under God’ was added to the Pledge in 1954. 

Why did I know this? Because my mom used to regale me with why and when it was added. As you will see in the article below, it was added by the federal government during the Eisenhower administration amidst the growing reality of the Red Scare and the Cold War.

My mom was in 10th grade in 1954, and she remembers being told at some point in the school year that the Pledge of Allegiance beginning each school day would now include the phrase ‘under God.’ 

Like a lot of sophomores then (and now), my mom had a rebellious streak. Rather than go along with the new practice, she and some of her homeroom friends (co-conspirators?) would typically remain silent or significantly lower their voice as the teacher recited ‘under God’ as part of the Pledge.

I really don’t think my mom was exerting her right to freedom of religion or protesting the importance for separation of church and state—she was just being an annoying teenager. 

As a kid I loved hearing my mom tell me this story—which, I’m sure she's embellished over time for effect. I don’t think she had any ulterior motive or message for me, I .e, be an individualist, yet I remember thinking that my mom was pretty cool for going against the norm. (Hey, I grew up in the 60s where protest was the norm.)

To this day, if we’re at an event where the Pledge is recited, she doesn’t say ‘under God’ during the Pledge—and I always smile at her. Still a rebel (well, maybe a quasi-one) at 77!

Anyway, read the article below and think about other traditions and perhaps even Google how they came to be and how they might have changed over time.

Joe

-----------------

I walked into the one-room schoolhouse just as the schoolmaster was leading the children in the Pledge of Allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands — one nation, indivisible — with liberty and justice for all.

Wait. What?

Along with my family, I’m visiting a reconstructed 1840s schoolhouse on the outskirts of Chicago in which volunteers recreate a typical morning of instruction. In here, the year is 1893, Grover Cleveland is President, and the Pledge of Allegiance is barely a year old — and, you’ve likely deduced, quite different from the one most Americans speak today. In fact, what you’ll also notice as you read further is that the Pledge — like virtually all writing and art — reflects more about America (as well as its fears) at certain moments in history than a stable, verbal vow of duty to one’s country and schoolroom.

The Bellamy Pledge (1892): In 1892, Francis Bellamy, a minister, pens the Pledge of Allegiance as part of a national patriotic school program, which would coincide with the opening of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The creation of the Pledge also reflected two widespread anxieties among native-born Americans at the time: the fear of new immigrants (especially in the Northeast) and the complacency of post-Civil War Americans oblivious to the dangers facing the country. Bellamy’s new Pledge, then, would serve two purposes: to rekindle the patriotism and heroic duty of the Civil War years, and to Americanize foreigners. In addition to the words of the Pledge, Bellamy devised a salute: At the words to my Flag, the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, toward the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation; whereupon all hands immediately drop to the side.

Clarity for Immigrants (1923–24): In 1923, the pronoun my was dropped from the Pledge of Allegiance, and the words the Flag of the United States of America were added. The American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution made this change so that immigrant children — who could theoretically be pledging their native land (rather than the U.S.) as they spoke — would be clear as to which flag they were saluting. The next year heralded further refinement of the pledge--adding the words of America:

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.

Let’s Rethink That Salute (1930s):  By the mid-1930s, Americans had begun to notice eerie similarities between the Bellamy salute and the “Heil Hitler” salute in Germany. Then, with the onset of WWII some women’s clubs, parent and teacher organizations, the Red Cross, and the Boys and Girls Scouts, for example, more vocally expressed their concerns about the parallels.  With the growing concerns about American citizens being mistaken for Nazi sympathizers, the Bellamy salute was officially done away with in December of 1942. Congress passed an amended Flag Code decreeing the Pledge of Allegiance “should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.”

Under God (1954): The Pledge of Allegiance underwent yet another change in 1954. Responding to the threat of Soviet Communism, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words under God to the pledge. This would “reaffirm the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future” and “strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.” Congress’s 1954 amendment would create the Pledge of Allegiance most Americans say today: 

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.