The Compulsory Education Act or Oregon School Law was a 1922 law in the U.S. state of
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
that
required school age children to attend only public schools. The
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
later struck down the law as unconstitutional.
Background
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, millions of immigrants from
Southern
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and
Eastern Europe
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poured into the
United States
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for economic and social opportunities, many of whom were poor peasants of Catholic and Jewish faith. Since the U.S. was predominantly a
Protestant society at the time, many saw these new immigrants as a threat, seeing them as criminals, competitors for jobs and housing, and their faith being supposedly incompatible with American values.
The Oregon State Immigration Commission stated its preferences even more clearly in its 1912 annual report:
In 1920, 13% of the population in Oregon were immigrants, 8% were Catholic, and less than 0.4% were black (caused by
Oregon black exclusion laws). Racial and religious prejudices were hard to break, however. A scant percent of Oregon’s students attended private school as well, about 7%, but more than three quarters of those private schools were run by the Catholic Church. In 1920, sociologist John Daniels said, “
hildrengo into the kindergarten as little Poles or Italians or Finns, babbling in the tongues of their parents, and at the end of half a dozen years or more…
hey
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emerge, looking, talking, thinking, and behaving generally like full-fledged Americans.” For Protestants, public schools seemed like they could be used as the great American melting pot, to teach “Pure Americanism” to the new immigrants and assimilate them into Protestant culture.
Enacting the Oregon Compulsory Education Act
![Mixing-the-Devils-Broth-Portland-Telegram-1922-FS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Mixing-the-Devils-Broth-Portland-Telegram-1922-FS.jpg)
In 1922, the
Masonic
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...
Grand Lodge of Oregon sponsored an initiative to require all school-age children to attend public schools. With support also of the state
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
and
1922 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Walter M. Pierce
Walter Marcus Pierce (May 30, 1861 – March 27, 1954) was an American politician, a Democrat, who served as the 17th Governor of Oregon and a member of the United States House of Representatives from . A native of Illinois, he served in the ...
, the Compulsory Education Law was passed by a vote of 115,506 to 103,685. Its primary purpose was to shut down Catholic schools in Oregon, but it also affected other private and military schools. It was challenged in court and struck down by the United States Supreme Court ''
Pierce v. Society of Sisters
''Pierce v. Society of Sisters'', 268 U.S. 510 (1925), was an early 20th-century United States Supreme Court decision striking down an Oregon statute that required all children to attend public school. The decision significantly expanded coverage ...
'' (1925) before it went into effect. The law, which was officially called the Compulsory Education Act and unofficially became known as the Oregon School Law, did not just require that children between the ages of eight and sixteen had to attend school; it required that they attend only public schools. By prohibiting children from attending private or parochial schools, the state thus forced such schools to close.
Outraged Catholics organized locally and nationally for the right to send their children to Catholic schools. In a 1925 decision, the United States Supreme Court declared the Oregon School Law unconstitutional in a ruling that has been called "the Magna Carta of the parochial school system." In the ruling, the Court asserted that "the child is not the mere creature of the state" and settled the question of whether or not private schools had a right to exist in The United States.
In 1929,
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...
explicitly referenced this Supreme Court case in his
encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally from ...
''Divini illius magistri''
on
Catholic education Catholic education may refer to:
* Catholic school, primary and secondary education organised by the Catholic Church or organisations affiliated with it
* Catholic university, private university run by the Catholic Church or organisations affilia ...
. He quoted this part of the case, which says:
The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty, to recognize, and prepare him for additional duties.
See also
*
Bennett Law
The Bennett Law, officially chapter 519 of the 1889 acts of the Wisconsin Legislature, was a controversial state law passed by the Wisconsin Legislature in 1889 dealing with compulsory education. The controversial section of the law was a requi ...
*''
Meyer v. Nebraska
''Meyer v. Nebraska'', 262 U.S. 390 (1923), was a U.S. Supreme Court case that held that a 1919 Nebraska law restricting foreign-language education violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. ...
''
* ''
Pierce v. Society of Sisters
''Pierce v. Society of Sisters'', 268 U.S. 510 (1925), was an early 20th-century United States Supreme Court decision striking down an Oregon statute that required all children to attend public school. The decision significantly expanded coverage ...
''
Further reading
* Lloyd P. Jorgenson. "The Oregon School Law of 1922: Passage and Sequel," ''The Catholic Historical Review,'' Vol. 54, No. 3 (Oct., 1968), pp. 455–46
in JSTOR*
David B. Tyack. "The Perils of Pluralism: The Background of the Pierce Case,"''American Historical Review'', Vol. 74, No. 1 (Oct., 1968), pp. 74–9
in JSTOR*
References
{{Oregon legislation
Oregon law
1922 in law
Anti-Catholicism in the United States
Ku Klux Klan in Oregon
1922 in Oregon
United States education law
Public education in Oregon