Pledge of Allegiance

The Pledge of Allegiance is a patriotic oath of loyalty to the United States flag and republic, traditionally recited in schools and at public ceremonies.

Francis Bellamy: An American minister and magazine editor who wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. Bellamy drafted the pledge for a national school celebration marking Columbus’s arrival in the Americas.
Pledge of Allegiance text: The official wording of the United States Pledge of Allegiance. The text’s sequence of allegiance, republic, nation, and liberty defines the oath’s claims.
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette: A 1943 United States Supreme Court decision barring public schools from compelling students to salute the flag or recite the pledge. The ruling established that schools cannot require participation in the pledge.
Civic religion: The use of shared symbols, rituals, and beliefs to express collective political identity. The pledge functions as a recurring national ritual with quasi-religious language and ceremony.
Youth's Companion: An American children’s magazine published in Boston from 1827 to 1929. The magazine commissioned Bellamy’s pledge and promoted its use in schools.
Bellamy salute: A raised-arm gesture once used during the Pledge of Allegiance before the Second World War. It accompanied the pledge until its resemblance to Nazi salutes led to its replacement.
Minersville School District v. Gobitis: A 1940 Supreme Court decision that upheld compulsory flag salutes in public schools; it was overruled three years later. Its approval of forced recitation was reversed by Barnette.
Patriotism: Attachment to and concern for one’s country and its political community. The pledge turns patriotic attachment into a repeated public declaration.
World's Columbian Exposition: A world’s fair held in Chicago in 1893 to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. The pledge was composed for a flag ceremony connected to the exposition’s 1892 celebrations.
Flag of the United States: The national flag of the United States, consisting of stars on a blue field and red-and-white stripes. The pledge names the flag as the object to which allegiance is sworn.

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