Saturday School: How One Town Kept Out "the Jewish," 1902-1932

by Tom Keating

Intolerance and bigotry seem to know few limits. We usually associate organized intolerance movements with violence and force, but that's not always the case. Bigotry and racism hide their faces in many ways. One Georgia town found a clever and incipient way to hold Jews at bay, from 1902 till 1932. Author Tom Keating shows us how it happened, even though the community itself kept no official record of its goals. The Decatur school system simply held public school classes from Tuesday through Saturday each week, leaving Sunday and Monday to be student "weekends." Turns out that the sole purpose of holding school on Saturday was to keep Jewish families out of the community, since Jews did not wish to have their children attend school on their Sabbath. It's a small idea with big results, and it's a wonder that many other school systems did not follow the same plan

60 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1999