Using Primary Using Primary Sources To Sources To

Understand Our Civil Understand Our Civil LibertiesLiberties

Using Primary Using Primary Sources To Sources To

Understand Our Civil Understand Our Civil LibertiesLiberties

Vashti McCollum vs. Board of Vashti McCollum vs. Board of Education, Champaign CountyEducation, Champaign County

Respond To The Following…

• HIS-STORY• HER-STORY• YOUR-STORY

What Does It Mean?....Why Is It Important To Use Primary Sources?

YOU WRITE THE STORY!

• Primary Sources are documents, reports, maps, photographs, letters, drawings and memoirs created by those who participated in or witnessed events of the past.

• Using primary sources, we learn that all written history reflects an author’s interpretation of past events. It is highly subjective in nature-thus, YOU WRITE THE STORY!

Local Lawsuit Established Freedom

From Religion!• “Today, the chief significance of the

McCollum case is that it was the first of a series of cases brought under the First and Fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution where a practice by a local or state governmental body was held to be illegal as ‘an establishment of religion’ by the Supreme Court of the United States…” Dannel McCollum

What Was Its Original Intent and How Did It Come To Be Viewed

By The Media?• Legal History: The Vashti McCollum Case• (Annotated Index of CD/ROM)• In 1940, the local Jewish, Roman Catholic and some Protestant groups

formed the Champaign Council on Religious Education. The group, with cooperation of the Champaign County Board of Education, offered voluntary classes in religion to public school students. The classes were held during the school day and those children not participating were asked to go elsewhere in the schools to pursue secular studies.

• The Champaign plan was challenged by Vashti McCollum, who argued that her eldest son, James Terry McCollum, was embarrassed because he was the only child in his classroom at South Side Elementary School not taking religious instruction. She filed a Petition for Mandamus, in the Circuit Court of Champaign County, Illinois, in September 1945. The Illinois courts denied her plea for an order prohibiting such teaching in the schools. She lost in unanimous decisions at the circuit and state Supreme Court levels.

• The case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on December 8, 1947, and decided on March 8, 1948. By an 8-1 vote the Supreme Court ruled in McCollum’s favor and disallowed the practice of religious education to take place in public school classrooms during the school day. Justice Hugo L. Black delivered the majority opinion.

Which Civil Liberties Were On Trial?

• Report of Enrollment in Religious Education in the Public Schools, by Arthur G. Cromwell, 1940

(handout for each student)

CORRESPONDENCE-January 14, 1945

• Vashti McCollum’s Representative Charles W. Clabaugh responds to her concerns aboutF:\McCollum\Correspondence\Rep Clabaugh, 14 January 1945.jpg Religious Instruction in the Classroom. What does this mean for her?

• (Students examine their copy of correspondence)

Another Representative Responds…3 Days

Later• How does

Representative Ora Dillavou respond?

• How would you feel?

• (Students examine their own copies of letter)

And finally, A State Senator Responds…Feb. 1945

• State Senator Everett R. Peters responds to Vashti McCollum on February 27, 1945.

• How would you feel? What would you do?

• (Students examine their copy of letter)

Are Civil Liberties Being Violated?

• Vashti McCollum files Petition for Mandamus-June 1945.

(Law Term meaning a formal request that something be done.)

What does Mrs. McCollum want? Is she justified?

The Trial Begins…September, 1945

• James Terry McCollum (son) takes the witness stand and testifies. How would you feel?

(Students receive excerpts from testimony-optional)

Vashti McCollum Testifies…

• Vashti McCollum takes witness stand, September 1945.

• What do you think she is thinking?

Those Opposed To Vashti McCollum’s

Stand…• Representatives

from schools and churches as well as the attorney for the Champaign School Board.

• How would you feel?

How Were Others Interpreting This Case?

• Using the attached newspaper clippings from The Daily Illini, Urbana Courier, News Gazette, Washington Post, Chicago Sun Times, Evening Courier (NY) and copies of wire stories from 1945-1995, examine the “mood” of the writers and the “mood” of the day.

• What factors do you think contributed to the overall “mood” reflected in this challenge?

The Case Eventually Reaches The Supreme Court on Dec. 8, 1947.

• Copy of cover page-full text can be found online)

• Decided March 8, 1948 in favor of McCollum.

• What was the outcome?

Mrs. McCollum Charges Distortion of her View on

Religious Teaching in Schools!• Washington

Religious Review, No. 46, January 17, 1949.

(Students examine own copy of document-2 pages)

Were Mrs. McCollum’s Civil Liberties Denied In Other

Ways?-You Decide!

• Cover of book written by Mrs. McCollum originally in 1951.

(Students read correspondence, Vashti McCollum to Friends, October, 1945 and respond.)

Links To Other Primary Sources In This Case.

• Circuit Court of Champaign County, Illinois. The People of the State of Illinois ex re. Vashti Mccollum vs. Board of Education of School district 71, Champaign County, Illinois. Petition For Mandamus. June 1945. (Complete Case)

• “Atheist’Child.” American Weekly, Dec. 26, 1948.• Religion and Public Schools: The Supreme Court’s

Decision in the Champaign Case.” The Public and Education, published by the National Education Association, May 25, 1948.

• Newspaper clippings from the Daily Illini, Urbana Courier, News Gazette, Washington Post, Chicago Sun Times, Evening Courier (NY), and copies of wire stories, 1945-1995.