Ten Things You Might Not Know About
The Pledge of Allegiance
- It was originally written in 1892 for the 400th Anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus. (Chicago World’s Fair)
- It was written by a Baptist minister’s son working for a magazine called Youth’s Companion. He didn’t like the pledge in existence at the time: “I give my heart and my hand to my country; one country, one language, one flag.” His goal was to write something positive, unifying, and appropriate for children to recite in school.
- Original text: “I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands—one Nation indivisible—with liberty and justice for all.”
- At the first National Flag Conference in 1923 “my flag” was changed to “the flag of the United States” so that immigrant children would clearly know whose flag they were saluting.
- At the 1924 Flag Conference “of America” was added.
- It wasn’t until 1942 that Congress adopted it as part of the national flag code: “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 1943 the Supreme Court ruled that Jehovah’s Witnesses should not be required to say the pledge because it conflicts with their beliefs about idolizing a graven image.
- Louis Albert Bowman, a chaplain for the Sons of the American Revolution, was the first to recite the pledge with “under God” added, at a meeting in 1948 . The DAR, Knights of Columbus, and other organizations backed a movement that culminated with the official addition of the phrase, by a Joint Resolution of Congress, in 1954.
- Eisenhower defended the addition of “under God”: "From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.... In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource, in peace or in war."
- The Bellamy salute that accompanied the original pledge was so similar to the Nazi salute that it was replaced by the “hand over heart” salute in 1942.
Ironic that something as simple as a holiday promotion could lead to all the legal and religious and patriotic controversy we have today over who should say the pledge, and how and when they can say it.