[Kids: I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States ...]
Elissa: You know one thing as American
as the Pledge of Allegiance?
Capitalism.
And it plays a starring role in the history of the pledge.
Picture this:
It’s the 1890s. The Civil War is a memory.
And there is an influx of immigrants.
Patriotic groups want to reignite the idea
of one united nation.
The Youth’s Companion,
one of the biggest magazines at the time,
is on board with this idea.
Which is good because all the kids are reading it.
So as part of a promotion they start offering
free U.S. flags to readers who sell more subscriptions.
And part of that ad campaign?
They created an official school program
for the 400th anniversary
of Columbus sailing the ocean blue
-- a day that wasn't so controversial back then.
They invited every school in the country.
And of course they required the raising of a flag.
To mark the raising of that flag
they needed something special —
a poem — or maybe an oath!
Cue the socialist Baptist minister,
advertising copywriter Francis Bellamy.
He reportedly whipped up the pledge in a few hours,
and that pledge was recited
by millions of schoolchildren across the country.
A few decades later, by World War I,
as nationalism swelled
nearly all U.S. schools recited the pledge.
A true American tale
about how the need to sell more magazines
created our original 23 words of patriotism.
Elissa Nadworny, NPR News.
[Kids: ... with liberty and justice for all.]
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