The Perils of Pluralism: The Background of the Pierce Case

THE King Kleagle, Pacific Domain, of Knights of Ku Klux Klan warmed to his theme. We are facing now, he said in I922, the ultimate perpetuation or destruction of free institutions, based upon perpetuation or destruction of public To defend common school is settled policy of Ku Klux Klan and with its white-robed sentinels keeping eternal watch, it shall for all time, with its blazing torches a signal fires, stand guard on outer walls of Temple of Liberty, cry out warning when danger appears and take its place in front rank of defenders of public schools.' The Kleagle and his hooded colleagues had just helped persuade citizens of Oregon to pass an initiative requiring all children between eight and sixteen to attend public schools and essentially outlawing private elementary schools. Now they were awaiting a court test of law by their opponents. Their short-lived triumph and monumental decision of United States Supreme Court in I925 (Sisters v. Pierce) ruling law unconstitutional together form an illuminating case study of purposes and limits of compulsory public education. Grotesque though it may be to see KKK as defenders of common school, Oregon adventure in education merely exaggerated certain patterns prevalent in our social and educational history of last century. Nativism, ioo per cent Americanism, anti-Catholicism, distrust of rich and well-born, political and moral fundamentalism-these were hardly new. But in 1920'S, fundamentalists of all stripes felt a peculiar sense of urgency, of anxiety, of displacement. (The names of days in Ku Klux Kalendar suggest mood: Desperate, Dreadful, Desolate, Doleful, Dismal, Deadly, Dark.2)