Ellery's Protest: How One Young Man Defied Tradition and Sparked the Battle over School Prayer

by Stephen D. Solomon

“Solomon’s fascinating and sweeping history of the legal fight over mandatory school prayers is compelling, judicious, and elegantly written. Fabulous!”

—David Rudenstine, Dean, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University

 

“Stephen Solomon’s Ellery’s Protest provides a brilliant analysis of a major Supreme Court decision that redefined the relationship between church and state almost a half century ago. This study goes well beyond simply offering a gripping account of the course of litigation that brought before the Justices the contentious issue of prayer and Bible reading in public schools, though the thoroughness of that account would merit careful reading by itself. Especially impressive is the author’s deep probing of hitherto neglected sources, and invaluable primary material including extensive direct contact with the plaintiff, the ‘Ellery’ of the book’s title. Finally, and perhaps most impressive, is Solomon’s careful placement of the issue and the case in a far broader context that is as critical to national life and policy today as it was four and a half decades ago when the high Court first tackled these questions.”

—Robert O’Neil, Professor of Law, University of Virginia

 

Great legal decisions often result from the heroic actions of average citizens. Ellery’s Protest is the story of how one student’s objection to mandatory school prayer and Bible reading led to one of the most controversial court cases of the twentieth century—and a decision that still reverberates in the battle over the role of religion in public life.

 

Abington School District v. Schempp began its journey through the nation’s courts in 1956, when sixteen-year-old Ellery Schempp protested his public school’s compulsory prayer and Bible-reading period by reading silently from the Koran. Ejected from class for his actions, Schempp sued the school district. The Supreme Court’s decision in his favor was one of the most important rulings on religious freedom in our nation’s history. It prompted a conservative backlash that continues to this day, in the skirmishes over school prayer, the teaching of creationism and intelligent design, and the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance with the phrase “under God.”

 

Author Stephen D. Solomon tells the fascinating personal and legal drama of the Schempp case: the family’s struggle against the ugly reactions of neighbors, and the impassioned courtroom clashes as brilliant lawyers on both sides argued about the meaning of religious freedom. But Schempp was not the only case challenging religious exercises in the schools at the time, and Ellery’s Protest describes the race to the Supreme Court among the attorneys for four such cases, including one involving the colorful atheist Madalyn Murray.

 

Solomon also explores the political, cultural, and religious roots of the controversy. Contrary to popular belief, liberal justices did not kick God out of the public schools. Bitter conflict over school Bible reading had long divided Protestants and Catholics in the United States. Eventually, it was the American people themselves who removed most religious exercises from public education as a more religiously diverse nation chose tolerance over sectarianism. Ellery’s Protest offers a vivid account of the case that embodied this change, and a reminder that conservative justices of the 1950s and 60s not only signed on to the Schempp decision, but strongly endorsed the separation of church and state.

Genres: Nonfiction

440 pages, Paperback

First published July 11, 2007

About the author

Stephen D. Solomon is a professor at New York University and associate director of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He is the founder and director of the Master of Arts program in Business and Economic Reporting. Steve teaches courses on First Amendment law (freedom of speech and press) to graduate and undergraduate students, and was awarded NYU's Golden Dozen Award for excellence in teaching. He earned a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. from Penn State University. He was a writer for Fortune magazine and his articles have appeared in many other publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and Technology Review. His work has been recognized with a Hillman Prize and the Gerald Loeb Award.

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This year (2013) the United States celebrates (or morns, as the case may be) 50 years since the 1963 Supreme Court’s “Schempp” ruling outlawing school-sponsored Bible reading and prayer in the public schools. With the exception of ‘Roe’, the Schempp ruling was the most unpopular high court ruling of the 20th century. ELLERY’S PROTEST is in many was a fascinating book describing a most important moment in American history. The defense posited by the defendant Pennsylvania school board can be summarized …. Bible reading and reciting the Lord’s Prayer is not religious, not sectarian, and in line with America’s rich ‘religious tradition.’ The defense contentions were obviously absurd and indefensible as shown by the 8-1 ruling of the Court and the majority opinion of the conservative Texas Justice, Tom Clark. Prayer to a deity is religious and a basic form of spiritual worship. The King James Bible (supplied by the school system) was admitted to be, by the defense’s own expert witness, sectarian to all non-Protestants and many Protestants. After the school boards lawyers argued that their practices were not-religious and non-sectarian, they invalidated their own positions by claiming “our rich national religious tradition.” In closing final arguments, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Henry Sawyer, responded:

“I think that tradition is not to be scoffed at, but let me say this very candidly: I think it is the final arrogance to talk constantly about the religious tradition. Whose religious tradition? There isn’t any part of the religious tradition of a substantial number of Americans, of a great many, a great many things and, really, some of the salient things about the King Lames version or the (Roman Catholic) Douay version, for that matter. And it’s just, to me, a little bit easy and arrogant to keep talking about a religious tradition. It suggests that public schools, at least of Pennsylvania, are a kind of Protestant institution to which others are cordially invited.”

In the lone dissent, Potter Stewart essentially said, ‘Let the majority decide and the kids who don’t like it can opt out.’ You know, I think that would be a great idea. The Jewish kids can stand in the hall and look forward to having the crap beaten out of them at recess. In Boston and Metairie Louisiana, the Catholic kids can pray to Mary while the Baptists stand in the hall. In California and Hawaii the kids can think nice thoughts about the Buddha, and in Patterson, N.J., the majority kids can chant Allah Akbar and the little Protestants can go screw themselves. The grievers for school prayer and Bible reading have no conception of what Civil Liberty means – civil liberties means nothing more or less than protecting the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority. In Schempp (and Murray) the Court took a stand for civil liberty the same as they had done in Brown v Board and would do later in Roe.

With the exception of the old establishment churches, church people, both Protestant and Roman, do not seem to grasp how important separation of church and state is to the well-being of the church. Separation is not only important – it is vital. History shows us the lesson. In Europe where every country has a state church supported by tax-payers, Christianity is dead. Not dying, understand – it’s dead – kaput – extinct. The most religious modern Christian country in the world is the US … why? … because the church in the US exists and competes (yes, the church also operates in the free market) in the market economy of ideas. The Egyptian, Sayyid Qutb, one of the main founders of modern Islamic terrorism, discovered this in 1948-50 when he studied in America. “Churches in America, he said, operate like businesses, competing for clients and publicity, using the same methods as stores and theaters, success is what matters, and success is measured by size. “ Wonder what old Sayyid would think of our 21st century mega-churches in domed stadiums, with stage lighting and megatron-screens and rock bands?

I started the 11th grade in the fall of 1963, following the Schempp ruling of that summer. I don’t remember if we had Bible or prayer either before or after the Supreme Court ruling. Logic would dictate that in rural Georgia we would have, but if so, it made no impression on me what-so-ever. How could they have? Anything repeated by rote every day will soon lose all significance, if it ever had any. As Paul Simon said, “I pledged allegiance to the wall…. ….in my little town.”

Neither the author of ELLERY’S PROTEST nor I took the effort to accurately determine the number of resolutions introduced into the Congress since 1963 to amend the Constitution to allow Bible reading, prayers, etc. The number is in the hundreds if not thousands. Of course, like Michelle Bachmann’s bi-monthly vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they have all been for political theater and bombast. At a Congressional hearing considering one of these amendments shortly after the high court ruling, the Executive Council of the Lutheran Church contributed this:

“If the Lord’s Prayer were to be recited in schoolrooms only for the sake of the moral and ethical atmosphere it creates, it would be worth nothing to the practicing Christian. The Lord’s Prayer is the supreme act of adoration and petition or it is debased. Reading the Bible in the public schools without comment, too, has been of dubious value as either an educational or religious experience. The more we attempt as Christians or Americans to insist on common denominator religious exercise or instruction in the public schools, the greater risk we run of diluting our faith and contributing to a vague religiosity which identifies religion with patriotism and becomes a national folk religion.”

“….. a vague religiosity which identifies religion with patriotism ….” The statement of the Lutheran Church Executive Council could not have been more prophetic. Compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling was widely ignored, especially in the south and the mid-west. Ronald Regan, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, George Bush and James Dobson have so interwoven the Christian church and the Republican Party that the two entities are indistinguishable. The modern American church is little more than an exercise in the glories of free enterprise and xenophobia. Even though Republicans all know deep in their hearts that Democrats are the Party of Satan, we keep electing Democratic presidents. American Christianity and conservative politics have essentially destroyed each other. The Republican Party will recover and I will welcome it back once it recovers its sanity. The Church? I am much less certain. The data and trends are, at best, gloomy.

ELLERY’S PROTEST is a must-read for any American, theist or non-theist, who desires to be educated.

JHE - June 2013 ---------------

Below is the review written after I read this book the first time in Sept. 2012:

This is a fascinating and in many ways, beautiful book, well researched and carefully written. Those who are convinced that religion is under attack in this country need to read the book. Solomon tells the compelling story of young Ellory Schempt, who in the late 1950s protested compulsory bible reading and prayer in his Pennsylvania public high school. Solomon also gives the reader a summary history of sectarian genocide and violence in Europe and colonial American.
Americans remember Madalyn Murray as the villain who invoked the case that ended legal public school prayer and bible reading. Although the court published the Murray decision on the same date in 1963, it was the Schempp decision that set the mass of precedent that continues to serve us almost 50 years later.

What religious conservatives would benefit from understanding is that the more government is separated from religion, the more religion prospers. As the executive council of the Lutheran Church said in congressional testimony opposing government sponsored school prayer, "The more we attempt as Christians and Americans to insist on common denominator religious exercise or instruction in the public schools, the greater risk we run of diluting our faith and contributing to a vague religiosity which identifies religion with patriotism and becomes a vague folk religion."
It appears to me that the fears of the Lutheran spokesman have come to pass anyway (the Court ruling was widely ignored in the south and mid-west) as evidenced by lack of any power or moral value from the church in this century. One example will do.... the southern Bible Belt states, the land of Jesus and abstinence education, lead the nation in unmarried teen pregnancy. Now more then 50% of white babies have no legal father. I suppose that could be because prayer was removed from the public schools, equally likely it could be due to fluoride in the drinking water.

[University of Michigan Press]

Great legal decisions often result from the heroic actions of average citizens. Ellery's Protest is the story of how one student's objection to mandatory school prayer and Bible reading led to one of the most controversial court cases of the twentieth century—and a decision that still reverberates in the battle over the role of religion in public life.

Abington School District v. Schempp began its journey through the nation's courts in 1956, when sixteen-year-old Ellery Schempp protested his public school's compulsory prayer and Bible-reading period by reading silently from the Koran. Ejected from class for his actions, Schempp sued the school district. The Supreme Court's decision in his favor was one of the most important rulings on religious freedom in our nation's history. It prompted a conservative backlash that continues to this day, in the skirmishes over school prayer, the teaching of creationism and intelligent design, and the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance with the phrase "under God."

Author Stephen D. Solomon tells the fascinating personal and legal drama of the Schempp case: the family's struggle against the ugly reactions of neighbors, and the impassioned courtroom clashes as brilliant lawyers on both sides argued about the meaning of religious freedom. But Schempp was not the only case challenging religious exercises in the schools at the time, and Ellery's Protest describes the race to the Supreme Court among the attorneys for four such cases, including one involving the colorful atheist Madalyn Murray.

Solomon also explores the political, cultural, and religious roots of the controversy. Contrary to popular belief, liberal justices did not kick God out of the public schools. Bitter conflict over school Bible reading had long divided Protestants and Catholics in the United States. Eventually, it was the American people themselves who removed most religious exercises from public education as a more religiously diverse nation chose tolerance over sectarianism. Ellery's Protest offers a vivid account of the case that embodied this change, and a reminder that conservative justices of the 1950s and 60s not only signed on to the Schempp decision, but strongly endorsed the separation of church and state.

"Solomon's fascinating and sweeping history of the legal fight over mandatory school prayers is compelling, judicious, and elegantly written. Fabulous!"
—David Rudenstine, Dean, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University

"Stephen Solomon's Ellery's Protest provides a brilliant analysis of a major Supreme Court decision that redefined the relationship between church and state almost a half century ago. This study goes well beyond simply offering a gripping account of the course of litigation that brought before the Justices the contentious issue of prayer and Bible reading in public schools, though the thoroughness of that account would merit careful reading by itself. Especially impressive is the author's deep probing of hitherto neglected sources, and invaluable primary material including extensive direct contact with the plaintiff, the 'Ellery' of the book's title. Finally, and perhaps most impressive, is Solomon's careful placement of the issue and the case in a far broader context that is as critical to national life and policy today as it was four and a half decades ago when the high Court first tackled these questions."
—Robert O'Neil, Professor of Law, University of Virginia

Stephen D. Solomon is an Associate Professor at New York University, where he teaches First Amendment law in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and is coauthor of Building 6: The Tragedy at Bridesburg. His articles have appeared in publications including the New York Times Magazine and Fortune, and have earned him several national awards for journalism.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. I've gotten to know Ellery Schempp in person so this book was particularly fascinating.