Vashti McCollum
Encyclopedia
Vashti Cromwell McCollum (November 6, 1912 – August 20, 2006) was the plaintiff in a landmark 1948 Supreme Court
case that struck down religious education in the public schools. The defendant in the McCollum case
was the school district of Champaign, Illinois
, wherein instructors chosen by three religious faiths had taught classes within the public schools.
Mrs. McCollum wrote a book on the case, One Woman's Fight (1953), became a world traveler and served two terms as president of the American Humanist Association
from 1962-1965. She was also a signer of the Humanist Manifesto II
in October 1973.
In 1948 Mrs. McCollum told The New York Times
"As long as the public school is used to recruit the child or to segregate the children according to religion or to use the truancy power of the public schools to make them go to religions classes, I'm against it".
and born as Vashti Ruth Cromwell in Lyons, New York
, she was raised in nearby Rochester, New York
and attended Cornell University
on a full tuition scholarship until the stock market crash
and deepening economic depression depleted the scholarship fund and forced her to withdraw from Cornell. She later transferred to the University of Illinois
.
and wrote a book on the case that became the basis for a PBS documentary The Lord Is Not on Trial Here.
. Released time was also known as the "Gary plan", after Gary, Indiana
, where the concept was devised in 1914. The released time concept allowed children to be released from public school to attend religious instruction at their house of worship. In the released time system in Champaign, the three represented religious faiths chose clergy and laypeople to teach the religion classes, which were taught in the public schools for 30 minutes each week.
With some reluctance, the McCollums allowed their eight-year-old son to attend the Champaign school district's Protestant religious course during his fourth grade year, but after reviewing the course materials, they withdrew permission for James' participation for the following year in the fifth grade, based on their belief that the content of Champaign's religion classes was inappropriate for the public schools. James – the only student in his class not participating in the religion class – was subsequently pressured by his teachers to conform, and his parents were pressured by school officials to permit him to join the religion classes to help James "get along". The McCollums were angered at their son's ostracism by his teachers, which included James being forced to sit alone in a hallway while the other pupils attended religion classes. After a meeting with school officials which failed to change the school district's policy, McCollum filed suit against Champaign's school district in July 1945.
, was filed in the 6th judicial circuit court and sought to bar the classes, which were taught by members of a private religious association and not public school employees. The petition before the court complained that the school district's practice was a violation of the Establishment Clause
of the First Amendment
, which provides that the state will not establish or favor one religion over another religion, or favor religion over non-religion; as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
, which guarantees that the law will apply equally to all people.
On September 10, 1945 the opening argument by McCollum's attorney, Landon Chapman, based the case on the idea that the program is sectarian and social pressure from students and teachers was used to get all students to participate. Defense attorney, John Franklin, indicated that similar programs are carried out in 46 states and in 80 Illinois communities. The Baptist Joint Committee
submitted an amicus brief in support of McCollum saying "We must not allow our religious fervor to blind us to the essential fact that no religious faith is secure when it meshes its authority with that of the state."
On the first day of the trial a Bible
carrying man is said to have approached the school board's attorney and announced that he was here to testify for the Lord. Franklin turned to him and replied, “The Lord, sir, is not on trial here today.” This quote was the source for the title of Dan McCollum's book on his mother's experience as well as the title of Jay Rosenstein's 2011 PBS documentary.
McCollum's father, Arthur Cromwell, testified in the original trial and elicited a gasp from the crowd when he said he did not believe in God. Both Cromwell and ten year old James McCollum "affirmed"
that they would tell the truth in lieu of swearing by God. In another key testimony Rev. Alva R Cartlidge, president of the Champaign school council for religious education, explained the program grew out of spontaneous demand caused by increasing juvenile delinquency.
The county circuit court ruled against McCollum and was subsequently upheld in fall 1946 by the Illinois Supreme Court upon appeal.
pelted the McCollum family with rotten tomatoes and cabbages. The family cat was killed.
According to McCollum most of the $25,000 cost of her lawsuit was underwritten by the Chicago Action Council, although $4,000 was paid by the family and $1,000 came from many private donations ranging from 25 cents to $100.
In an 8-1 decision announced on March 8, 1948 , the high court reversed the ruling of the lower court, and held that the school district's religious instruction program was unconstitutional. A critical issue in the case was whether the constitutional ban on establishing religion meant that all sects must be treated equally, as lawyers for Champaign argued was the case in their schools or whether it required strict neutrality between belief and unbelief, which was Mrs. McCollum's successful contention. "The First Amendment rests upon the premise that both religion and government can best work to achieve their lofty aims if each is left free from the other in its respective sphere", Justice Black
wrote. The case was also important because it extended First Amendment protection to individual states by using the due process clause of the 14th Amendment as a justification. All other cases that have since tested and continue to test Thomas Jefferson
's wall of "separation of church and state", including school prayer, aid to parochial school
s and sectarian religious displays on public property, descend from this case.
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
case that struck down religious education in the public schools. The defendant in the McCollum case
McCollum v. Board of Education
McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203 , was a landmark 1948 United States Supreme Court case related to the power of a state to use its tax-supported public school system in aid of religious instruction...
was the school district of Champaign, Illinois
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
, wherein instructors chosen by three religious faiths had taught classes within the public schools.
Mrs. McCollum wrote a book on the case, One Woman's Fight (1953), became a world traveler and served two terms as president of the American Humanist Association
American Humanist Association
The American Humanist Association is an educational organization in the United States that advances Humanism. "Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that...
from 1962-1965. She was also a signer of the Humanist Manifesto II
Humanist Manifesto II
The second Humanist Manifesto was written in 1973 by Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson, and was intended to update the previous one. It begins with a statement that the excesses of Nazism and world war had made the first seem "far too optimistic", and indicated a more hardheaded and realistic...
in October 1973.
In 1948 Mrs. McCollum told The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
"As long as the public school is used to recruit the child or to segregate the children according to religion or to use the truancy power of the public schools to make them go to religions classes, I'm against it".
Background/Education
Named after the Old Testament feminist Queen VashtiVashti
Queen Vashti is the first wife of King Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther, a book included in the Hebrew Bible and read on the Jewish holiday of Purim. She is banished for her refusal to appear at the king's banquet, and Esther is chosen to succeed her as queen. In the Midrash, Vashti is described...
and born as Vashti Ruth Cromwell in Lyons, New York
Lyons, New York
Lyons, New York may refer to either of two places in Wayne County, New York, USA:* Lyons , New York* Lyons , New York...
, she was raised in nearby Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
and attended Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
on a full tuition scholarship until the stock market crash
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
and deepening economic depression depleted the scholarship fund and forced her to withdraw from Cornell. She later transferred to the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
.
Family
She met her husband-to-be, John Paschal McCollum at Champaign-Urbana, and the couple married in 1933. The McCollums had three children: James, Dannel, and Errol. Dannel McCollum later served three four-year terms as mayor of Champaign, IllinoisChampaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
and wrote a book on the case that became the basis for a PBS documentary The Lord Is Not on Trial Here.
Activism
In 1944, James McCollum, then a fourth grader enrolled in the Champaign public schools, came home with a parental consent form for his attendance at "voluntary" religion classes during the school day. The form allowed choice between Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish instruction. The religious education program in the Champaign public schools had been established in 1940, and was based on a concept known as released timeReleased Time
Released Time is a concept used in the United States public school system wherein pupils enrolled in the public schools are permitted by law to receive religious instruction...
. Released time was also known as the "Gary plan", after Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population is 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. It borders Lake Michigan and is known...
, where the concept was devised in 1914. The released time concept allowed children to be released from public school to attend religious instruction at their house of worship. In the released time system in Champaign, the three represented religious faiths chose clergy and laypeople to teach the religion classes, which were taught in the public schools for 30 minutes each week.
With some reluctance, the McCollums allowed their eight-year-old son to attend the Champaign school district's Protestant religious course during his fourth grade year, but after reviewing the course materials, they withdrew permission for James' participation for the following year in the fifth grade, based on their belief that the content of Champaign's religion classes was inappropriate for the public schools. James – the only student in his class not participating in the religion class – was subsequently pressured by his teachers to conform, and his parents were pressured by school officials to permit him to join the religion classes to help James "get along". The McCollums were angered at their son's ostracism by his teachers, which included James being forced to sit alone in a hallway while the other pupils attended religion classes. After a meeting with school officials which failed to change the school district's policy, McCollum filed suit against Champaign's school district in July 1945.
Lawsuit
McCollum's suit, Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Ed. of School Dist. No. 71, Champaign Cty.McCollum v. Board of Education
McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203 , was a landmark 1948 United States Supreme Court case related to the power of a state to use its tax-supported public school system in aid of religious instruction...
, was filed in the 6th judicial circuit court and sought to bar the classes, which were taught by members of a private religious association and not public school employees. The petition before the court complained that the school district's practice was a violation of the Establishment Clause
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
The Establishment Clause is the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating, Together with the Free Exercise Clause The Establishment Clause is the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,...
of the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
, which provides that the state will not establish or favor one religion over another religion, or favor religion over non-religion; as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
, which guarantees that the law will apply equally to all people.
On September 10, 1945 the opening argument by McCollum's attorney, Landon Chapman, based the case on the idea that the program is sectarian and social pressure from students and teachers was used to get all students to participate. Defense attorney, John Franklin, indicated that similar programs are carried out in 46 states and in 80 Illinois communities. The Baptist Joint Committee
Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty
The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is an education and advocacy association in the United States with a number of Baptist denominations. It states that it seeks to promote religious liberty for all and to uphold the principle of church-state separation...
submitted an amicus brief in support of McCollum saying "We must not allow our religious fervor to blind us to the essential fact that no religious faith is secure when it meshes its authority with that of the state."
On the first day of the trial a Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
carrying man is said to have approached the school board's attorney and announced that he was here to testify for the Lord. Franklin turned to him and replied, “The Lord, sir, is not on trial here today.” This quote was the source for the title of Dan McCollum's book on his mother's experience as well as the title of Jay Rosenstein's 2011 PBS documentary.
McCollum's father, Arthur Cromwell, testified in the original trial and elicited a gasp from the crowd when he said he did not believe in God. Both Cromwell and ten year old James McCollum "affirmed"
Affirmation in law
In law, an affirmation is a solemn declaration allowed to those who conscientiously object to taking an oath. An affirmation has exactly the same legal effect as an oath, but is usually taken to avoid the religious implications of an oath...
that they would tell the truth in lieu of swearing by God. In another key testimony Rev. Alva R Cartlidge, president of the Champaign school council for religious education, explained the program grew out of spontaneous demand caused by increasing juvenile delinquency.
The county circuit court ruled against McCollum and was subsequently upheld in fall 1946 by the Illinois Supreme Court upon appeal.
Impact on family
During the three-year legal battle, Mrs. McCollum received physical threats and was fired from her job as a dance instructor at the university. At Halloween, a mob of trick-or-treatersTrick-or-treating
Trick-or-treating or "Guising", is a customary practice for children on Halloween in many countries. Children in costumes travel from house to house in order to ask for treats such as candy with the question "Trick or treat?"...
pelted the McCollum family with rotten tomatoes and cabbages. The family cat was killed.
According to McCollum most of the $25,000 cost of her lawsuit was underwritten by the Chicago Action Council, although $4,000 was paid by the family and $1,000 came from many private donations ranging from 25 cents to $100.
Supreme court appeal
On June 2, 1947 the U. S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and arguments started December 8, 1947. Attorney John F. Dodd represented the plaintiff to the supreme court and John L. Franklin again served as counsel for the State of Illinois.In an 8-1 decision announced on March 8, 1948 , the high court reversed the ruling of the lower court, and held that the school district's religious instruction program was unconstitutional. A critical issue in the case was whether the constitutional ban on establishing religion meant that all sects must be treated equally, as lawyers for Champaign argued was the case in their schools or whether it required strict neutrality between belief and unbelief, which was Mrs. McCollum's successful contention. "The First Amendment rests upon the premise that both religion and government can best work to achieve their lofty aims if each is left free from the other in its respective sphere", Justice Black
Hugo Black
Hugo Lafayette Black was an American politician and jurist. A member of the Democratic Party, Black represented Alabama in the United States Senate from 1927 to 1937, and served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1937 to 1971. Black was nominated to the Supreme...
wrote. The case was also important because it extended First Amendment protection to individual states by using the due process clause of the 14th Amendment as a justification. All other cases that have since tested and continue to test Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
's wall of "separation of church and state", including school prayer, aid to parochial school
Parochial school
A parochial school is a school that provides religious education in addition to conventional education. In a narrower sense, a parochial school is a Christian grammar school or high school which is part of, and run by, a parish.-United Kingdom:...
s and sectarian religious displays on public property, descend from this case.
External references
- Champaign woman who won high court ruling dead at 93, obituary from the Champaign News-Gazette online edition, August 21, 2006
- Article on McCollum and her lawsuit from Church & State (magazine), Vol. 51, April 1998, via questia.com
- Dannel Angus McCollum Papers, including Vashti McCollum's scrapbooks
- PBS documentary The Lord is not on trial here today