Church/State Fundamentals: McCollum v. Board of Education (1948)
Friday January 2, 2009
In 1940, Jewish, Roman Catholic, and some Protestant groups formed the Champaign (Illinois) Council on Religious Education. In association with the Champaign Board of Education, they provided voluntary classes in religion to public school students in grades four through nine. Mrs. Vashti McCollum was an atheist and a mother of a student in that school system who complained that the program violated the separation of church and state and, specifically, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. By a 6-1 vote the Supreme Court agreed with Mrs. McCollum, an atheist mother, and disallowed the practice of having religious education to take place in public school classrooms during the school day.
Read Article: McCollum v. Board of Education (1948)
Comments
Decision: 8 – 1
Actually, my mother considered herself an agnostic, not an atheist. The issue was interjected into the suit by her father, Arthur G. Cromwell, who did, indeed, consider himself an atheist, when a pamphlet he wrote was submitted by the attorney who represented us in this mandamus action against the school board. And, yes, the decision was 8 to 1, not 6 to 1, Mr. Justice Reed, dissenting.