Pledge of Allegiance
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- Since the late 19th century, children have been reciting a pledge to the US flag, and to the government symbolized therewith.
- This pledge has changed somewhat over time, these changes generally added to the text, in order to clarify to what the children were pledging their fealty, or at least a nicely padded version.
HISTORY
Toward the end of the 19th Century, Baptist minister and Socialist, Francis Bellamy, wrote the Pledge for the popular magazine Youth's Companion. Bellamy stated that the purpose of the pledge was to teach students that obedience to the state was a virtue. Before World War Two, the standard salute started with the right hand held over the heart, then extended toward the flag as the pledge was recited. This was quickly changed in order to disassociate this pledge from the Nazi Party then at war with the US. The meaning remained unchanged, however, even with this window dressing removed. The last change was made in the mid 1950s, by then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower, inserting the words "under God".
