Oddity of the Week: Pledging the Flag
Created | Updated May 11, 2014
Let's get patriotic. Or maybe not.
The Controversial Pledge of Allegiance
No, these children are not chanting 'Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer'. They are – wait for it – reciting the US Pledge of Allegiance. In 1942. And thereby hangs a tale.
Foreigners may not know this, but US citizens have been reciting some version of this pledge, while facing the Stars and Stripes, aka Old Glory, since the 1890s. US citizens know this, because they were forced to do it in school. What US citizens may not know is how many times that Pledge has changed, and for what reasons.
Most of them also don't know that the Pledge was written by a Socialist. (This might upset some people.) The Rev Francis Bellamy was a Baptist minister, a committed Socialist, and a cousin of Edward Bellamy, the author of Looking Backward, the famous (and yawn-inducing) Socialist time-travel novel.
Francis Bellamy's Pledge did not include the words 'United States of America'. He meant the Pledge to be a universal one, used by anybody. Just say, 'I pledge allegiance to my flag, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'
Rev Bellamy wanted to say something about equality, but he knew the school superintendant wouldn't stand for it. That worthy did not believe in equality – not for women and African Americans, anyway.
Sooner or later, the words 'United States of America' crept in. In 1954, the Knights of Columbus threw 'under God' into the mix. And, well, after Hitler, they had to change the way the kids saluted the flag. Stretching one arm out like that now had unpleasant associations. Rev Bellamy wasn't that kind of Socialist.
Funny old thing, history. If you take a long enough view, you'll catch yourself with the most peculiar notions. Now, would you like to hear the Baptist salute to the Bible? We thought not…
