Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and Christian socialist, wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance in 1892 to be recited during the Columbus Day celebration. The pledge was published in a magazine aimed at youth and was adopted for use in public schools. Over the decades, minor changes were made to the wording of the pledge, such as replacing "my Flag" with "the Flag of the United States." In 1954, Congress added the phrase "under God" to the pledge. The pledge and its wording have been controversial due to issues around compulsory patriotism and the separation of church and state.

1. A pledge of loyalty

2.  The Pledge of Allegiance was written
by Francis Julius Bellamy, born in
Mount Morris, New York on May
18, 1855 and died in Tampa, Florida
in August on the 28th in 1931. He was
an author , editor, an American
Baptist minister, and a Christian
Socialist. Bellamy attended Rome
Free Academy in Rome, New York
, the University of Rochester (1872-
1876, and the Rochester Theological
Seminary (1876-1880).

3. Christian Socialist: Any theory or system that aims to
combine the teachings of Christ with the teachings of
socialism in their applications to life; Christianized
socialism; esp., the principles of this nature advocated by
F. D. Maurice, Charles Kingsley, and others in England
about 1850.
Christian socialism is a socialist ideology that regards
capitalism as a faith or ideology to be rooted in the
mortal sin of avarice and claim it is a form of mammon
worship. Christian socialists identify the cause of
inequality to be associated with greed that they associate
with capitalism.
Christian socialism became a major movement in the
United Kingdom beginning in the 1960s through the
Christian Socialist Movement.

4. The original “Pledge of
Allegiance” was published
in the September 8 issue
of a children’s magazine
called, The Youth’s
Companion as part the
National Public-School
Celebration of Columbus
Day .

5. The original pledge read:
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the
Republic for which it stands, one nation
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”

6. Bellamy designed the pledge to be recited in 15
Seconds. Because of his position as a Socialist, he
Considered using the words equality and
Fraternity, but decided against it because the
state superintendents of educations on his
committee were against equality of women and
African Americans.

7. Francis Bellamy and James B. Upham, a marketer
for the “Youth’s Companion”, convinced the
National Education Association to support the
“Youth’s Companion” as a sponsor of the Columbus
Day celebration along with the use of the American
Flag. By June 29, 1892, Bellamy and Upham had
arranged for Congress and President Benjamin
Harrison to announce a proclamation making the
public school flag ceremony the center of
Columbus Day celebration.

8. The Pledge was first used in the classroom on
October 12, 1892 during Columbus Day observance
That followed the opening of the World’s
Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

9. In 1940, the Supreme Court in the Minersville
School District ruled that students in public school,
including Jehovah’s Witnesses could be compelled
to swear to the Pledge. In 1943, the Supreme Court
reversed its decision because the ruling violated the
the First Amendment.

10. One objections states that a democratic republic
built on freedom should not require its citizens to
pledge allegiance to it. Also, the fact that the
people who are most likely to recite the Pledge
every day, small children in schools, cannot really
give their consent and nor do they understand what
the Pledge means.

11. Louis A. Bowman, an author from Rock Island,
Illinois, was the first to initiate the addition of
“under God” to the pledge and the National Society
of the Daughters of the American Revolution gave
him an Award of Merit for the idea. Bowman stated
that the words came from Lincoln’s Gettysburg
Address and at a meeting on February 12, 1948,
Bowman led the Society in swearing the Pledge
with the two words added.
Daughters of the American
Revolution

12. Critics say that a government requiring and
promoting the phrase “under God” violates
protection against the establishment of religion
guaranteed in the Establishment Clause of the First
Amendment.

13. In 1923, the National Flag Conference called for
the words “my Flag” to be changed to “the Flag of
The United States”, so that new immigrants would
not confuse loyalties between their countries and
The United States. A year later the words “of
America” were added.

14. The United States Congress officially recognized
the Pledge for the first time in on June 22, 1942 as
written as,
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States
of America, and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all”

15. The phrase “under God” was incorporated into the
Pledge of Allegiance June 14, 1954, by a Joint
Resolution of Congress. The decision to do so was
pushed by George MacPherson Docherty, the
Pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Pastor Docherty delivered a sermon based on the
Gettysburg Address in which he cited Lincoln’s
words “under God” as defining words that set the
United States apart from all other nations.

16. The Proud
Home of the
And the Brave
Free

17. The Bellamy Salute was adopted in 1892, and
removed in December 22, 1942. The Bellamy salute
started with an outstretched hand toward the flag
with palm down, and ended with the palm up.
Because the Bellamy Salute resembled the Nazi
Salute, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt instituted the hand
over the heart gesture.