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“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – First Amendment to the United States Constitution
A black sixth grade student was arrested in Florida after refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. The police arrested him for disruption and resisting arrest. The 11 year-old student at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy – in Lakeland, east of Tampa – refused to stand and recite the Pledge, prompting the substitute teacher to become upset.
On February 4, the student was in class when the Pledge of Allegiance was to be recited but refused, saying “that he won’t because the flag of this country was racist,” according to the statement from the teacher. “He then started to explain why the National Anthem was offensive to black people.”
According to a handwritten statement from the teacher, Ana Alvarez, she asked the student if living in the United States was “so bad” then why not go to another place to live?
The student replied, “They brought me here.”
“Well you can always go back, because I came here from Cuba, and the day I feel I am not welcome here anymore, I would find another place to live,” Alvarez replied, then called the office to have the student removed from the classroom. (Again, tell Me again, how "cancel culture" is some "new thing" & note that as Usual, once again, a staple in "American-history", to ATTACK Black-Children and be DISMISSIVE of whatever a Black-Child states. Make a smarmy, smart-assed, dismissive-comment, then pick up a phone or make a gesture, to have "the Trash", taken out of "Their sight". These things are supposed to make Us angry, but in a manner where it Calls Us TO ACTION, to END THIS KIND OF CRAP, and not by CONTINUING TO PARTICIPATE IN IT. But by ACTIVELY WORKING & CREATING & BUILDING & PRODUCING, so that We DON'T HAVE TO HAVE THIS PROBLEM ANYMORE. This!? Is why Whites ARE TRYING DESPERATELY NOT TO PAY US REPARATIONS...! This is why Scumbags like Bernie Sanders, PRETENDS, not to know how Cash-payments for Reparations works, when His People AND HIMSELF, have gotten AND CONTINUE TO GET, cash-payments, AMONG COUNTLESS OTHER REPARATIONS, while also STILL ENFORCING THE IMMEDIATE ARREST & IMPRISONMENT OF NAZI-SURVIVORS, but Cancel Culture, is some new thing, which is the World's newest addition to the List of Shitty-Lies being Told)
“Suspend me! I don’t care. This school is racist,” the student told the dean as he walked out of the classroom with his backpack.
The student then allegedly “created another disturbance and made threats while he was escorted to the office.” He was later charged by police with disruption of a school facility and resisting an officer without violence by the Lakeland Police. (White-students are being caught-&-shown to be, LITERALLY PREPARING TO KILL EVERYONE IN THEIR SCHOOLS, yet...? Meh, no-no, it's a PHASE, and WE DON'T WANNA RUIN THEIR LIFE, sooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, let's see what happens next!? But THIS BLACK-CHILD, how dare they STATE ACTUAL FACTS BOTH PAST-&-PRESENT, and then point out something that EVERYONE KNOWS "You don't give Your Loyalty to anyone or anything THAT DOESN'T DESERVE IT & IS NOT LOYAL TO YOU". -_- So now, for the Asian-Americans reading this You can shut up about how Black-children & Black-People, don't care about education, because THIS BLACK-CHILD JUST DEMONSTRATED MORE ABILITY-&-BACKBONE TO BE A PILLAR OF SOCIETY THAN YOU. When asked what & why, the Black-Child answered USING REAL-WORLD, REAL-TIME, EVENTS. Where Their Statement was BACKED UP BY HISTORICAL-FACTS IN RELATIONS TO THEIR RACE, where this Black-Child IS ACTING CORRECTLY & ACCORDINGLY. And as Per FACTUAL-HISTORY, well...? We can't have that, now can We, because Nigger-children aren't supposed to give two-fucks about "THEIR RACE" and "HOW THEY'RE BEING TREATED", cuz everybody knows Blacks got no loyalty to each other, right...? RIGHT...? See this is how Black-Children ARE CONDITIONED & TORMENTED into become misaligned and hopeless, because They're targeted TO BE TURNED OUT THAT WAY. This isn't some random coincidence, nor is it the first time Whites have used schools TO DESTROY THE CHILDREN OF THOSE THEY WANT EXTERMINATED. The Red Native-American Indians found this out the hard way AND NEVER ADAPTED, NEVER ACCEPTED, the REALITY, that Whites wanted Them DEAD. Till it was way beyond TOO LATE....)
According to the arresting officer, Carlos Cortez, the student “continued to yell that the teacher had told him to, “Go back to Africa.” The student continued saying, “I’m not leaving. Do your job and take her, she’s the racist one who told me to go back to Africa.” (Oh-ho, how dare this REBEL!? Rouse like this, but not to worry, OUR BROWN-ALLY will RIDE TO THE RESCUE, oh wait, no He won't, whoops, sorry. Let's see what else Carlos had to say about all of this)
From reports in the Ledger, the local newspaper, Cortes also wrote in the police report that the student told the dean not to touch him and that he would call the police on him. After finally leaving the classroom, the student continued yelling in the hallway “You’re all racist.” When he entered the office he began crying and screamed, “I’m going to beat that teacher.” (Hmmmm? I wonder whether or not this Black-student has been a target of harassment by His Fellow BROWN-STUDENTS, hmmmm, somehow I don't...? I don't seem to see any...? Any indication that such a concern...? Was even dreamed up to examine, huh, I can't believe it, oh & this is FLORIDA, too, by the Way... Good ole Florida... good ole fuckin-Florida....)
Attorney Roderick Ford is representing the student’s family and said they are filing a lawsuit due to the treatment of the 11 year-old, because he was exercising his constitutionally protected right of free speech. They are filing a civil-rights complaint with the federal Department of Education.
“There is an improper constitutional deprivation of rights that goes to the heart of the founding of this country. He is very proud to be an American and he was acting in the greatest tradition of being an American,” said Ford. (Uhhhhhhhhhhhmm, NO. Because IF he was doing that, the White-tradition is to go get the Gun/s & come back AND KILL EVERYONE THERE, so, NO! He is acting IN THE TRADITION OF BLACK-AMERICANS IN POINTING OUT THE PROBLEM. HIGHLIGHTING THE LIES. THEN RESISTING THE ATTEMPT TO KEEP ENFORCING THE SHITTY-BEHAVIOR! That, IS NOT, AMERICAN! That is, BLACK! AMERICAN!)
Brian Haas, the state attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit in Florida, said that his office would not press charges in the case. “The case is closed,” Haas said. (-_- Even reading this all I see is a disgusted judge looking like "I'm not trying to deal with this shit right now, get this case & that camera outta My Face!)
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the encounter “outrageous.” The New York Times reported that “a lawyer for the boy’s family suggested that the case had not been resolved because the boy’s mother, Dhakira Talbot, declined an offer from prosecutors to drop the case if the boy completed a so-called diversion program, which could include a fine and community service.” (So here is the other side of the Equation, where as Usual, oh...!? We're gonna drop the Case, BUT ONLY AFTER YOU GO THROUGH SOME HOOPS & GET SOME SLAPS ABOUT THE FACE-N-NECK TO TEACH YOU NOT TO DO THIS AGAIN...!)
There is a lot to unpack in this situation, and color has an influence on the perception of what took place. (Color...? Fuck you typing about Reggie, IT IS RACE. Don't pussy out now, it is RACE. Not Color.)
As a former teacher myself, I am upset that something which should have been a teachable moment turned into a traumatizing arrest and national media coverage. The student is now in another school, but continues to deal with the aftermath of this mess. His family has also been traumatized. The school refused to allow the student to call his mother during the incident when he asked them to. The school resource (police) officer was asked to handle things, when a phone call to his mom could have helped the student to calm down. (Again...? The FACTUAL. HISTORY. Is to ISOLATE THE BLACK-CHILD, fuck calling any Black-Parents, keep in mind that until OVERT CHATTEL-SLAVERY ENDED, Black-American PARENTS, DIDN'T HAVE CONTROL OVER THEIR CHILDREN, and You DO, KNOW THAT RIGHT...!? And that is REGARDLESS OF WHERE YOU LIVED AS A BLACK-AMERICAN. Any, RANDO WHITE-PERSON, could LITERALLY LIE & CREATE GROUNDS TO GET YOUR KIDS TAKEN FROM YOU...! Because Black-Americans HAD NO RIGHTS IN SLAVE-STATES. AND HAD SITUATIONAL-RIGHTS IN "FREE-STATES", and I typed that BASED OFF OF THE FACTUAL-HISTORY. And it is a FACT. The SITUATION, just like RIGHT NOW, as determined BY THE WHITES INVOLVED. Will DETERMINE HOW MUCH "Rights" YOU HAVE, AT THAT MOMENT, AS A BLACK-AMERICAN, BLACK-PERSON, IN GENERAL. This is why You have White-People who will blindly walk up to a Black-Person & tell Them WHAT THEY CAN-&-CAN'T DO, when THEY HAVE NO "RIGHT", to do so, until YOU REMEMBER THE FACTUAL-HISTORY OF THIS PLACE. Then You quickly realize that a Rando-Whitewomen, DECIDING TO SAY "Where are You going, I know You don't live in this neighborhood, this building, this apartment, this condo, etc.-etc., I need to see PROOF that You live here before I let You walk in, go in, etc.. Meanwhile...!? Black-People, are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH, deadly, yet? How & why is this kind of thing happening, unless We are NOT NEARLY AS DEADLY & DANGEROUS & VIOLENT, as OUR LITERAL ENSLAVERS, have claimed, and note I typed ANOTHER HISTORICAL-FACT. Whites!? Were and keep CREATING WAYS TO STAY, Our LITERAL, ENSLAVERS. Yet, yeah, believe what THEY SAY, ABOUT THE PEOPLE THEY ENSLAVE, ha! Sheer madness, FLAT OUT, craziness!!!!! But what do We see!? We see PLENTY OF PEOPLE COSIGN & SUPPORT IT, this article is further proof of that....)
The substitute teacher will not be allowed to work at the school in the future. That alone is an indictment of the school. Clearly they believe the teacher instigated the incident, otherwise they would have no reason to not invite her back. For this adult to challenge a student and tell him to “Go Back to Africa” is highly problematic and clearly racist.
For those who choose to tell black people to “Go back to Africa” let me offer this: Compensate black people for the free labor of their ancestors who paid with their lives to build this country. Give black people reparations for that stolen labor. Give black people compensation for the four hundred years of pain and suffering. Give black people the proceeds of the wealth created by their ancestors toiling under the threat of a violent death. Go to Africa and fix all the damage Europe and America caused in their greed to find free labor, and the theft of that wealth from the continent. If all of those things could be accomplished, some black people might consider going back to the homeland they never had the chance to grow up in.
The initial response by Alvarez to the student, about her coming from Cuba and having the choice to go back if she did like America, is an example of how out of touch she is. It also shows the hierarchy of misunderstanding that exists regardless of ethnicity.
Alvarez is a Hispanic woman and immigrant, yet she not aware that black people were forcibly taken to America in shackles after being kidnapped in their homeland? Does she not know that thousands of Africans were enslaved in Cuba? Africans had no choice about being here. She chose to leave Cuba and come to America. Our ancestors did not.
The teacher talked about leaving if she found it unwelcoming to her. America has proven to be unwelcoming to black people for nearly four hundred years. And considering how the President of the United States has condemned and vilified Hispanic people, America does not appear to be very welcoming to anyone south of the border. Americans – even military veterans – have been detained simply for speaking Spanish.
Africa is certainly farther away than the 90-mile trip to Florida from Cuba. Practically speaking it is a little bit more difficult to just pack up and leave for a land across the ocean than most of us has never known.
Besides that, we have no way of knowing where we came from in Africa. Our families have been displaced, and dispersed without any information about our ancestral home. Even DNA tests that purportedly tell us where we are from only approximate based on who lives in those places today. Over the past four hundred years, the people of West Africa have had their ancestral homelands disrupted by European interlopers who “colonized” a majority of the continent, creating fake borders that had never existed before. Therefore, the people who live in those places now are not necessarily the people who have always lived in those places.
Controversies surrounding students refusing to stand and recite the pledge are not new. Last year Windfern High School senior India Landry, who is also black, was expelled from her school in Houston, Texas. Landry had sat during the pledge many times previously. Her mother stated that the principal told her that when she came to pick up her daughter, “She can’t come to my school if she won’t stand for the pledge.”
The mother reported that she was told by a school official: “This isn’t the NFL,” in reference to the protest by several NFL players including Colin Kaepernick. In 2017, two Texas high school football players were kicked off their team for protests, including one of them kneeling and the other holding up a fist during the national anthem. One of the students, Cedric “CJ” Ingram-Lewis told the Washington Post that the coach approached the two and “he told us to take off our uniform and leave it there.”
Landry said, “I don’t think that the flag is what it says it stands for, for liberty and justice and all that. It’s not obviously what’s going on in America today.”
She protested by sitting down at least 200 times over the year. What led to her expulsion was that she refused to stand for the pledge in the principal’s office on October 2, 2017. The assistant principal told Landry that she would have “to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance like other African-Americans in her class.”
Last September her family filed a lawsuit against Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District, saying her right to free speech and due process were violated by the expulsion. According to Texas law, students are required to stand for the pledge unless they have a parent or guardian’s permission to opt out.
“Schoolchildren cannot unilaterally refuse to participate in the pledge,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, according to a report in USA Today. He added that Texas is one of 26 states with similar Pledge statutes. Paxton is supporting a lawsuit which seeks to uphold the expulsion. “Requiring the pledge to be recited at the start of every school day has the laudable result of fostering respect for our flag and a patriotic love of our country.”
In a landmark 1943 case, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, the United States Supreme Court held that the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment protects students from being forced to salute the American flag or say the Pledge of Allegiance in public school. The case was brought by a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses whose religion forbids them from saluting or pledging to symbols.
Law professor Brian Owsley of UNT Dallas College of Law, penned an article for the Dallas Morning News stating that:
“In Barnette, the education board adopted a resolution requiring schoolchildren to extend their right arms, palms upward, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag as well as the United States. A failure to salute the flag was deemed to be an act of insubordination resulting in the student being expelled from school. Moreover, their parents were subject to prosecution because the expelled children were deemed to be unlawfully absent from school in violation of state law. The Barnettes were Jehovah’s Witnesses whose faith barred them from swearing allegiance to the flag.”
The Supreme Court decision found that “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.”
From a legal standpoint, these students are within their rights to not stand for the pledge. To be expelled or arrested as a result of refusing is quintessentially American. Ignoring the U.S. Supreme Court decision in this case is reminiscent of the refusal of schools across the country to abide by the mandates of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which demanded an end to forced segregation of public schools.
The racial elements in each of these cases cannot be ignored. A history of the Pledge of Allegiance provides some insights. Socialist minister Francis Bellamy wrote a pledge in August 1892, hoping it would be used in many countries.
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
A 1923 change added the words, “the Flag of the United States of America.” In 1954, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words “under God” to the pledge. They did so on June 14, 1954 leaving us with the current pledge:
“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 was accompanied by a military style salute which came to be known as “The Bellamy Salute,” where the right hand was held over the heart. After reciting “to the Flag,” the arm was extended toward the Flag, palm-down. During WWII the salute resembled the Nazi salute too much and it was changed to just holding the hand over the heart during the entire pledge. In 1954 Joseph L. Lewis of New York brought a lawsuit that challenged the addition of the words “under God.” The Court dismissed the claims presented by Lewis, that the Pledge was an establishment of religion by stating:
“There cannot be the slightest doubt that the First Amendment reflect the philosophy that Church and State should be separated. The First Amendment, however, does not say that in every and all respects there shall be a separation of Church and State. Rather, it studiously defines the manner, the specific ways, in which there shall be no concert or union or dependency one on the other. That is the common sense of the matter. Otherwise the state and religion would be aliens to each other—hostile, suspicious, and even unfriendly. Prayers in our legislative halls; the appeals to the Almighty that run through our laws, our public rituals, our ceremonies would be flouting the First Amendment.”
The use of American flags in schools is an interesting story as well, and explains how a clever marketing individual led the nation into the recitation of the Pledge. Just a few short years before the pledge was written, Daniel Sharp Ford, owner of The Youth’s Companion, a children’s publication that focused on “virtue and piety,” launched a campaign to sell flags to American schools. It was part of a schoolhouse flag movement bandwagon he jumped on with hopes of increasing subscriptions to his publication.
Ford’s marketing director, James B. Upham, was asked to develop a marketing gimmick to get schools to purchase more flags. Upham decided to find a way to monetize patriotism by creating a “pledge” in which children would declare their love for the country. He hired Francis Bellamy to write something that could easily be recited in “15 seconds or less.” Bellamy wanted to include the words “equality” and “fraternity” in the pledge but his editors did not want to provide a precedent, which acknowledged the rights of blacks and women.
President Benjamin Harrison had urged the nation to celebrate the first ever-national Columbus Day in 1892, marking the 400th anniversary of the “discovery” of America. The President wanted teachers to emphasize the importance of teaching students about patriotism. Bellamy sold his idea at a national convention and designed the holiday celebration around an elaborate flag-raising ceremony, along with his pledge. Ford managed to sell American flags to nearly 30,000 U.S. schools, and the Pledge became a fixture in classrooms around the country.
Americans often focus too much on tradition without asking why, or understanding the origins of our customs. The inspiration for the Pledge had more to do with marketing and capitalistic calculations to make money than about national patriotism.
As our society ignores the opportunities to have constructive discussions about patriotism and race in America, we will continue to see more students harassed for expressing their First Amendment rights when they refuse to stand for the National Anthem or Pledge Allegiance to the American flag.
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed a resolution establishing an official flag for the country. It stated: “Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” “Old Glory” would become the official flag of the new nation.
The flag that white America expects black people to pledge allegiance to would fly over the nation that enslaved millions of Africans for 88 years after the flag was created.
It would fly over the nation that promoted and permitted racial violence against blacks after slavery was “abolished” in 1865. The flag would fly over the nation, whose Supreme Court stated in Plessy V. Ferguson (1896) that segregation of the races is perfectly okay. This same flag flew over the nation that stood by and did nothing to stop the thousands of ritualistic murders of blacks – known as lynching – for decades. The flag flew over the nation that permitted major professional sports leagues to exclude black players for decades. These same leagues now force everyone to bear witness to the playing of the national anthem at every one of their games.
The Ku Klux Klan carried the U.S. flag as its patriotic symbol for many years before they adopted the Confederate Flag.
The stars and stripes of our flag means something different to those of us who choose to honor our ancestors, when this nation treated them inhumanly. Native Americans, who were the victims of genocide and the theft of their ancestral lands have a legitimate gripe with the American flag. Asians, who were denied entry to this country by laws such as the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act have a legitimate argument with the American flag. Mexicans, who became a part of the United States when nearly half of their country was taken over at the end of the Mexican American War have a legitimate argument with the American flag.
Just because these populations to not make their arguments public does not mean they accept the situation. They have tried to be accepted by adapting to white American cultural expectations, because they would be punished otherwise – and provide another excuse for discrimination.
Is it possible to love the country and still protest against the flag and pledge? Absolutely. We can love our family and still have issues with them. Likewise, we can serve in the armed services and still disagree with our nation’s political policies. The Baby Boomer generation, who disrupted society and questioned conservative culture during the Vietnam War, is now the same generation that forbids questioning the government or sharing individual opinions. Rejecting the narrative about equal justice in America is not unpatriotic.
What is unpatriotic is not challenging your country to be better. What is unpatriotic is refusing to be honest about the marginalization of people of color. What is unpatriotic is not standing up for the rights granted to us by the U.S. Constitution, such as our freedom of speech. No one is entitled to tell others how they should express their displeasure with the nation they call home. No one can tell you how to express your patriotism unless they have walked in your shoes.
The inventor of the Bellamy salute was James B. Upham, junior partner and editor of The Youth's Companion.[2] Bellamy recalled that Upham, upon reading the pledge, came into the posture of the salute, snapped his heels together, and said, "Now up there is the flag; I come to salute; as I say "I pledge allegiance to my flag," I stretch out my right hand and keep it raised while I say the stirring words that follow."[2]
The Bellamy salute was first demonstrated on October 12, 1892, according to Bellamy's published instructions for the "National School Celebration of Columbus Day":
In the 1920s, Italian fascists adopted what has been called the Roman salute to symbolize their claim to have revitalized Italy on the model of ancient Rome. A similar ritual was adopted by the German Nazis, creating the Nazi salute. Controversy grew in the United States on the use of the Bellamy salute given its similarity to the fascist salutes. School boards around the country revised the salute to avoid this similarity. There was a counter-backlash from the United States Flag Association and the Daughters of the American Revolution, who felt it inappropriate for Americans to have to change the traditional salute because foreigners had later adopted a similar gesture.[3]
From 1939 until the attack on Pearl Harbor, detractors of Americans who argued against intervention in World War II produced propaganda using the salute to lessen those Americans' reputations. Among the anti-interventionist Americans was aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh. The pictures of him appearing to do the Nazi salute are actually pictures of him using the Bellamy salute.[4] In his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Lindbergh (1998), author A. Scott Berg explains that interventionist propagandists would photograph Lindbergh and other isolationists using this salute from an angle that left out the American flag, so it would be indistinguishable to observers from the Nazi salute.
On June 22, 1942, at the urging of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Congress passed Public Law 77-623, which codified the etiquette used to display and pledge allegiance to the flag. This included the use of a palm-out salute, specifically that the pledge "be rendered by standing with the right hand over the heart; extending the right hand, palm upward, toward the flag at the words 'to the flag' and holding this position until the end, when the hand drops to the side." Congress did not discuss or take into account the controversy over use of the salute. Congress later amended the code on December 22, 1942, when it passed Public Law 77-829, stating among other changes, that the pledge "be rendered by standing with the right hand over the heart."[5]
Francis Julius Bellamy was born on May 18, 1855, in Mount Morris, New York to Rev. David Bellamy (1806–1864) and Lucy Clark.[2] His family was deeply involved in the Baptist church and they moved to Rome, New York, when Bellamy was only 5. Here, Bellamy became an active member of the First Baptist Church; which his father was minister of until his death in 1864. He attended the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, where he studied theology and belonged to the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.
As a young man, he became a Baptist minister and, influenced by the vestiges of the Second Great Awakening, began to travel to promote his faith and help his community. Bellamy's travels brought him to Massachusetts, where he penned the "Pledge of Allegiance" for a campaign by the Youth's Companion, a patriotic circular and magazine. Bellamy "believed in the absolute separation of church and state"[3] and purposefully did not include the phrase "under God" in his pledge.
In 1891, Daniel Sharp Ford, the owner of the Youth's Companion, hired Bellamy to work with Ford's nephew James B. Upham in the magazine's premium department. In 1888, the Youth's Companion had begun a campaign to sell US flags to public schools as a premium to solicit subscriptions. For Upham and Bellamy, the flag promotion was more than merely a business move; under their influence, the Youth's Companion became a fervent supporter of the schoolhouse flag movement, which aimed to place a flag above every school in the nation. Four years later, by 1892, the magazine had sold US flags to approximately 26,000 schools. By this time the market was slowing for flags but was not yet saturated.
In 1892, Upham had the idea of using the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus reaching the Americas / Western Hemisphere in 1492 to further bolster the schoolhouse flag movement. The magazine called for a national Columbian Public School Celebration to coincide with the World's Columbian Exposition, then scheduled to be held in Chicago, Illinois, during 1893. A flag salute was to be part of the official program for the Columbus Day celebration on October 12 to be held in schools all over the US.
The pledge was published in the September 8, 1892, issue of the magazine,[4] and immediately put to use in the campaign. Bellamy went to speak to a national meeting of school superintendents to promote the celebration; the convention liked the idea and selected a committee of leading educators to implement the program, including the immediate past president of the National Education Association. Bellamy was selected as the chair. Having received the official blessing of educators, Bellamy's committee now had the task of spreading the word across the nation and of designing an official program for schools to follow on the day of national celebration. He structured the program around a flag-raising ceremony and his pledge.
His original Pledge read as follows:
The recital was accompanied with a salute to the flag known as the Bellamy salute, described in detail by Bellamy. During World War II, the salute was replaced with a hand-over-heart gesture because the original form involved stretching the arm out towards the flag in a manner that resembled the later Nazi salute. (For a history of the pledge, see Pledge of Allegiance).
In 1954, in response to the perceived threat of secular Communism, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," creating the 31-word pledge that is recited today.[5]
Bellamy described his thoughts as crafted the language of the pledge:
Bellamy "viewed his Pledge as an 'inoculation' that would protect immigrants and native-born but insufficiently patriotic Americans from the 'virus' of radicalism and subversion."[6]
Bellamy was a Christian socialist[1] who "championed 'the rights of working people and the equal distribution of economic resources, which he believed was inherent in the teachings of Jesus.'"[6] In 1891, Bellamy was "forced from his Boston pulpit for preaching against the evils of capitalism",[3] and eventually stopped attending church altogether after moving to Florida, reportedly because of the racism he witnessed there.[7] Francis's career as a preacher ended because of his tendency to describe Jesus as a socialist. In the 21st century, Bellamy is considered an early American democratic socialist.[8]
Francis Bellamy was a leader in the public education movement, the nationalization movement, and the Christian socialist movement. He united his grassroots network to start a collective memory activism in 1892.[9]
French philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon's "new Christianity", which stressed using science to tackle poverty, influenced Bellamy and many of the "new St. Simonians." They saw nationalization (de-privatization) and public education as the policy solutions.[9]
In 1889, Francis Bellamy served as founding vice president and wrote several articles for the Society of Christian Socialists, a grassroots organization founded in Boston. The newspaper Dawn was run by his cousin Edward and Frances Willard. Francis Bellamy wrote about the Golden Rule and quoted Bible passages that denounced greed and lust for money. He was also chairman of the education committee.[9]
Bellamy offered public education classes with topics such as "Jesus the socialist", "What is Christian Socialism?", and "Socialism versus anarchy". In 1891, Bellamy was asked to write down this last lecture, which called for a strong government and argued that only the socialist economy could allow both the worker and the owner to practice the golden rule. This essay, along with public relations experience, allowed him to coordinate a massive Columbus Day campaign.[9]
On immigration and universal suffrage, Bellamy wrote in the editorial of The Illustrated American, Vol. XXII, No. 394, p. 258: "[a] democracy like ours cannot afford to throw itself open to the world where every man is a lawmaker, every dull-witted or fanatical immigrant admitted to our citizenship is a bane to the commonwealth.”[6] And further: "Where all classes of society merge insensibly into one another every alien immigrant of inferior race may bring corruption to the stock. There are races more or less akin to our own whom we may admit freely and get nothing but advantage by the infusion of their wholesome blood. But there are other races, which we cannot assimilate without lowering our racial standard, which should be as sacred to us as the sanctity of our homes."[10]
Bellamy is known to have spent 19 years working in New York City but it is unclear as to when. While living there he would work in the advertising industry. He believed in high pressure advertising and thought that it could also still be truthful at the same time. Advertising was seen by him as a way to create demand for American industrial activities.[11]
Bellamy and his second wife, Marie, moved from New York City to Tampa, Florida in 1922 where he spent the remainder of his life living. Starting in 1926 he began to work part time for the Tampa Electric Company as advertising manager after persuading the company's management that they needed systemic publicity/advertising he could develop. The 1930 United States Census recorded him residing at 2926 Wallcraft Avenue. He got fired from his job at Tampa Electric Company on July 15, 1931 and applied for and got a similar job at Tampa Gas Company.[11]
Bellamy died in Tampa on August 28, 1931, at the age of 76. His cremated remains were brought back to New York and buried in a family plot in a cemetery in Rome.[12][13]
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