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One Woman's Fight
"One Woman's Fight" is the fascinating story of Vashti Cromwell McCollum's fight against the Champaign, Illinois school district practice of teaching Bible Lessons during school hours in 1945. Despite great opposition and the community backlash against her, she carried her fight all the way to the United States Supreme Court which ruled in her favor in 1948 in one of the most important cases regarding the separation of church and state. (Amazon customer)
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Published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 20, 2018
This book is essentially a memoir by Vashti McCollum detailing her experience in what eventually became The Supreme Court decision McCollum vs Board of Education. She is lovely to read--witty, insightful, and intelligent. The book concludes with the decisions--both affirming and dissenting--of the court's 8-1 decision which banned religious education in public schools. We are a secular family living in a very religious area and I was able to identify with Vashti, even 50+ years later! We owe her much gratitude for her perseverance in this case. It may honestly be in my top 10 favorite books.
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August 17, 2018Champaign, Illinois public school sent fifth-grader James McCollum to in-school detention for opting out of religious education class. The school superintendent, circuit court, and Illinois Supreme Court said that's fine. Justice Hugo Black wrote the 8-1 1948 majority opinion for the U.S. Supreme Court, saying Champaign was using tax-supported schools "to aid religious groups to spread their faith," banned by the First Amendment.
With the current Supreme Court, who knows how this would go.
Books by James's mother, One Woman's Fight by Vashti McCollum goodreads.com/book/show/1758646.One_W...
and by his brother, The Lord Was Not On Trial: The Inside Story Of The Supreme Court's Precedent Setting Mc Collum Ruling by Dannel McCollum goodreads.com/book/show/7798133-the-l...
and a documentary video: worldcat.org/title/lord-is-not-on-tri...
Magazine article http://www.las.illinois.edu/docs/alum...
With the current Supreme Court, who knows how this would go.
Books by James's mother, One Woman's Fight by Vashti McCollum goodreads.com/book/show/1758646.One_W...
and by his brother, The Lord Was Not On Trial: The Inside Story Of The Supreme Court's Precedent Setting Mc Collum Ruling by Dannel McCollum goodreads.com/book/show/7798133-the-l...
and a documentary video: worldcat.org/title/lord-is-not-on-tri...
Magazine article http://www.las.illinois.edu/docs/alum...
January 24, 2022
Vashti Cromwell McCollum was at the center of "separation of church and state" debate in my own community, eight years before I was born. I had never heard of her until a friend loaned me Vashti's memoir. The specific conflict was over whether the Champaign IL school district could use "release time" during the regular school day and invite local church approved instructors to take over the classrooms for it. Students were not required to participate, but if they opted out, they had to leave the classroom and all their classmates and either wait in the hall or wait in another room and do their homework while the other students were evangelized.
Vashti did not agree with the theological tenets and proselitizing that was occurring, and so she refused to sign a permission slip for her son to participate. The good Christian classmates who were receiving the indoctrination preceded to bully her son and the teacher blamed all of it on the boy and his mother for their refusal to conform. Vashti took the school to court on the grounds that the United States Constitution and the Illinois Constitution both forbade such mingling of church and state.
She describes the attacks on her and her family, both verbal and physical, from the Christians of the community and from Christians from around the country. She also describes the court case in Urbana, county seat of Champaign County, and how she lost the case there. She describes how she lost the case at the Illinois Supreme Court. She describes how the case quickly was distorted from being a constitutional issue to an issue over her own religious ideas and practices. (She was a secular humanist.) The local newspaper, still in existence, attacked her personally in its headlines and reporting rather than fairly present the issue at hand.
The case eventually went to the Supreme Court and she won, 8-1, in the first modern case that firmly established how separation of church and state should be applied to public schools.
The local religious leaders who led the effort to teach religion in the schools were in First Methodist Church in Champaign. I am also a United Methodist pastor, and while I didn't know the pastor who was at the center of this storm, I find myself embarrassed. As a denomination, our leaders today would likely be standing alongside Vashti McCollum in her struggle for religious freedom. But that was not the case in the 1940s.
Church leaders in those days argued that they needed to teach religion in the schools to virtually captive audiences because they couldn't get those kids and their families to come to church and receive such evangelism. They argued that religious teaching in schools cut down on juvenile delinquency. They argued that what they were teaching was "standard" and accepted by the majority of the people of the community. They finally argued that it couldn't do any harm. But non-biased research into those assertions contraindicated the claims.
It is an historical irony that the Methodists and other mainline denominations who tried so hard to use the schools to propagate their "majority" beliefs now find themselves attacked by a new majority in many communities: the religious right. If the religious right had its way, it would be indoctrinating students not only with theology that is often unethical, but also with political preferences that have nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth. I am grateful for the work that Vashti McCullom did, and for her courage. But it is not a certainty that the rights she fought hard to win can continue to be taken for granted.
Vashti did not agree with the theological tenets and proselitizing that was occurring, and so she refused to sign a permission slip for her son to participate. The good Christian classmates who were receiving the indoctrination preceded to bully her son and the teacher blamed all of it on the boy and his mother for their refusal to conform. Vashti took the school to court on the grounds that the United States Constitution and the Illinois Constitution both forbade such mingling of church and state.
She describes the attacks on her and her family, both verbal and physical, from the Christians of the community and from Christians from around the country. She also describes the court case in Urbana, county seat of Champaign County, and how she lost the case there. She describes how she lost the case at the Illinois Supreme Court. She describes how the case quickly was distorted from being a constitutional issue to an issue over her own religious ideas and practices. (She was a secular humanist.) The local newspaper, still in existence, attacked her personally in its headlines and reporting rather than fairly present the issue at hand.
The case eventually went to the Supreme Court and she won, 8-1, in the first modern case that firmly established how separation of church and state should be applied to public schools.
The local religious leaders who led the effort to teach religion in the schools were in First Methodist Church in Champaign. I am also a United Methodist pastor, and while I didn't know the pastor who was at the center of this storm, I find myself embarrassed. As a denomination, our leaders today would likely be standing alongside Vashti McCollum in her struggle for religious freedom. But that was not the case in the 1940s.
Church leaders in those days argued that they needed to teach religion in the schools to virtually captive audiences because they couldn't get those kids and their families to come to church and receive such evangelism. They argued that religious teaching in schools cut down on juvenile delinquency. They argued that what they were teaching was "standard" and accepted by the majority of the people of the community. They finally argued that it couldn't do any harm. But non-biased research into those assertions contraindicated the claims.
It is an historical irony that the Methodists and other mainline denominations who tried so hard to use the schools to propagate their "majority" beliefs now find themselves attacked by a new majority in many communities: the religious right. If the religious right had its way, it would be indoctrinating students not only with theology that is often unethical, but also with political preferences that have nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth. I am grateful for the work that Vashti McCullom did, and for her courage. But it is not a certainty that the rights she fought hard to win can continue to be taken for granted.
May 10, 2022
I read this book for an essay in my “Unbelief in America” class and I just find Vashti so incredible. Something I love about Vashti is that she doesn’t shy away about being a mother and she’s very open about the decisions she’s made because of her children. Her parenting style has been attacked because of her beliefs, the fact that she’s a mother has been used to belittle her intelligence. It’s just interesting what critics of atheists attack when the atheist is a woman in comparison to a man. But seriously Vashti is such a badass and it seems to all come from her love for her children and her integrity. And I can’t believe they freaking lynched her cat. She and her entire family were just so resilient in the face of persecution. I just could not.
March 10, 2018
Excellent.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews