{"id":2491,"date":"2015-08-25T08:57:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T12:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?p=2491"},"modified":"2024-11-04T15:34:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T20:34:39","slug":"secret-history-pledge-of-allegiance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/secret-history-pledge-of-allegiance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret History of the Pledge of Allegiance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most Americans are taught the Pledge of Allegiance as young students, eager to pay tribute to their flag and their country. However, few Americans really know how the Pledge got its start. The Pledge of Allegiance has had a very interesting history.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Pledge-Of-Allegiance-1892.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Pledge-Of-Allegiance-1892.jpg\" alt=\"Pledge Of Allegiance 1892\" width=\"290\" height=\"387\" \/><\/a>The pledge was born in 1892 when Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, created a short, concise statement for \u201cThe Youth\u2019s Companion\u201d, a popular youth publication of the time, in honor of Christopher Columbus\u2019s discovery of America. Bellamy originally intended for the pledge to last for only 15 seconds. A month after the pledge was published, President Benjamin Harrison decreed that it be recited in schools in observance of Columbus Day of 1892, exactly 400 years after Columbus\u2019s discovery.<\/p>\n<p>What many Americans may not know is that the pledge has undergone many, many revisions to get to the point it is today. Initially, Bellamy wanted to add the word \u201cequality\u201d to the pledge, but changed his mind due to the controversial political climate at the time. Bellamy\u2019s original pledge read, \u201cI pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Though it seems very similar to the Pledge of Allegiance that we recite today, there were still changes to be made.<\/p>\n<p>The National Flag Conference in 1923 made the first real changes to the pledge, modifying the words \u201cmy Flag\u201d to read \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/american-flags\">the Flag of the United States<\/a>\u201d so that immigrants would know which flag the pledge was referencing. In the early 1900\u2019s, many immigrants were flocking to America, the \u201cLand of Opportunity,\u201d and this change was meant to\u00a0 make it more apparent that the U.S. was their new home. The Conference then added the words \u201cof America\u201d to the phrase a year later. Allegedly, Bellamy did not approve of these changes, but the Conference did not heed his resistance.<\/p>\n<p>While Congress recognized the pledge as the official national pledge on June 22, 1942, the next year, the Supreme Court ruled that public school students could not be forced to recite the pledge. It wasn\u2019t until 1954 that Congress added the words \u201cunder God\u201d to the pledge after serious campaigning from the Knights of Columbus.<\/p>\n<p>Though the Pledge of Allegiance has seen much revision and controversy over the years, it remains an important part of our patriotic history. Just like \u201c<a title=\"Which anthem is national?\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/which-anthem-is-national\/\">The Star-Spangled Banner<\/a>\u201d and other American standards, the Pledge of Allegiance is here to stay!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most Americans are taught the Pledge of Allegiance as young students, eager to pay tribute to their flag and their country. However, few Americans really know how the Pledge got its start. The Pledge of Allegiance has had a very interesting history. The pledge was born in 1892 when Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, created&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/secret-history-pledge-of-allegiance\/\">continue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":2492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[65,10,3,104],"class_list":["post-2491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flag-information","tag-america","tag-american-flag","tag-history","tag-national-anthem"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Secret History of the Pledge of Allegiance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The pledge of allegiance was born in 1892 when Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, created a short, concise statement for \u201cThe Youth\u2019s Companion\u201d.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/secret-history-pledge-of-allegiance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Secret History of the Pledge of Allegiance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The pledge of allegiance was born in 1892 when Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, created a short, concise statement for \u201cThe Youth\u2019s Companion\u201d.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/secret-history-pledge-of-allegiance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-25T12:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta 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