A Wall of Separation · Episode 3 of 14 · 25 min
When U.S. Public Schools Were Quietly Protestant — and Catholics Fought Back
The nineteenth century dismantled the last state churches and quietly raised an informal Protestant establishment in the common school. Horace Mann's nonsectarian Bible, Catholic objections, the 1844 Philadelphia Bible Riots, the Blaine Amendment and Reynolds v. United States show the wall often protected a Protestant mainstream as much as it separated church from state.
Who's who
- Horace Mann+4 more episodesMassachusetts education secretary and champion of nonsectarian public schools
- Francis KenrickCatholic bishop of Philadelphia whose Bible requests inflamed nativists
- James G. Blaine+1 more episodeCongressman who proposed the 1875 amendment against aid to sectarian schools
- George ReynoldsBrigham Young's secretary and defendant in Reynolds v. United States
- Morrison WaiteChief Justice who wrote Reynolds and drew the belief-action distinction
Where it happens
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania+6 more episodesSite of the 1844 Bible Riots in Kensington and Southwark
- Massachusetts+3 more episodesLast state to end tax support for churches, in 1833
Timeline
- 1818Connecticut disestablishes the Congregational Church
- 1833Massachusetts becomes the last state to end tax support for churches
- 1844Nativist violence in the Philadelphia Bible Riots burns Catholic churches
- 1875Blaine's amendment passes the House but fails in the Senate; about 37 states adopt state versions
- 1878Reynolds v. United States upholds the anti-bigamy law against a Mormon free-exercise claim
Still debated
Historians ask whether Mann's nonsectarianism was neutral pluralism or a soft establishment. The anti-Catholic origins of the Blaine amendments are disputed in modern school-choice fights, and the 1844 riot death toll is only approximate.
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