Vashti McCollum was the plaintiff in a landmark Supreme Court case in 1948 that struck down religious education in public schools. It was in this decision that Justice Hugo Black wrote his well known statement "The First Amendment has erected a wall between the church and the state...." and set the stage for later Court challenges involving religion and government. As a result of her fight, she and her family were ostracized by her community.
She was the daughter of Arthur Grifford Cromwell and Ruth Clara Clausz Cromwell of Wayne County, New York∼Vashti Ruth Cromwell, campaigner and writer: born Lyons, New York 6 November 1912; married 1933 John McCollum (deceased; three sons); died Champaign, Illinois 20 August 2006.
Vashti McCollum took on the US establishment in the 1940s in a brave campaign of conscience that was to end in a landmark ruling upholding the separation of church and state. It took a long, hard, often dirty, three-year struggle in a moral and political climate where the US religious and political right equated humanism with Communism.
In 1945 Vashti filed a writ of mandamus - a judicial writ directing an individual or organisation to perform a public or statutory duty - in the Champaign County Circuit Court. It hinged on the flouting, financially, of the First Amendment's separation of religion and government. Supporting her were the local Unitarian minister and a group of Chicago-based Jewish businessmen dedicated to equality of treatment. It failed. Things got rough, even un-Christian, for the family. The backlash included school bullying, threats, the family cat's getting lynched and McCollum's losing her job. A challenge to the Illinois Supreme Court also failed.
In the autumn of 1947 a legal appeal to the US Supreme Court succeeded. It granted certiorari, in essence passing the case to the higher court. In March 1948 McCollum v Board of Education became a landmark in US constitutional law. Justice Hugo L. Black delivered the majority (8-1) ruling that the program had been unconstitutional, based on the First and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
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She was the daughter of Arthur Grifford Cromwell and Ruth Clara Clausz Cromwell of Wayne County, New York∼Vashti Ruth Cromwell, campaigner and writer: born Lyons, New York 6 November 1912; married 1933 John McCollum (deceased; three sons); died Champaign, Illinois 20 August 2006.
Vashti McCollum took on the US establishment in the 1940s in a brave campaign of conscience that was to end in a landmark ruling upholding the separation of church and state. It took a long, hard, often dirty, three-year struggle in a moral and political climate where the US religious and political right equated humanism with Communism.
In 1945 Vashti filed a writ of mandamus - a judicial writ directing an individual or organisation to perform a public or statutory duty - in the Champaign County Circuit Court. It hinged on the flouting, financially, of the First Amendment's separation of religion and government. Supporting her were the local Unitarian minister and a group of Chicago-based Jewish businessmen dedicated to equality of treatment. It failed. Things got rough, even un-Christian, for the family. The backlash included school bullying, threats, the family cat's getting lynched and McCollum's losing her job. A challenge to the Illinois Supreme Court also failed.
In the autumn of 1947 a legal appeal to the US Supreme Court succeeded. It granted certiorari, in essence passing the case to the higher court. In March 1948 McCollum v Board of Education became a landmark in US constitutional law. Justice Hugo L. Black delivered the majority (8-1) ruling that the program had been unconstitutional, based on the First and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vashti McCollum was the plaintiff in a landmark Supreme Court case in 1948 that struck down religious education in public schools. It was in this decision that Justice Hugo Black wrote his well known statement "The First Amendment has erected a wall between the church and the state...." and set the stage for later Court challenges involving religion and government. As a result of her fight, she and her family were ostracized by her community.
She was the daughter of Arthur Grifford Cromwell and Ruth Clara Clausz Cromwell of Wayne County, New York∼Vashti Ruth Cromwell, campaigner and writer: born Lyons, New York 6 November 1912; married 1933 John McCollum (deceased; three sons); died Champaign, Illinois 20 August 2006.
Vashti McCollum took on the US establishment in the 1940s in a brave campaign of conscience that was to end in a landmark ruling upholding the separation of church and state. It took a long, hard, often dirty, three-year struggle in a moral and political climate where the US religious and political right equated humanism with Communism.
In 1945 Vashti filed a writ of mandamus - a judicial writ directing an individual or organisation to perform a public or statutory duty - in the Champaign County Circuit Court. It hinged on the flouting, financially, of the First Amendment's separation of religion and government. Supporting her were the local Unitarian minister and a group of Chicago-based Jewish businessmen dedicated to equality of treatment. It failed. Things got rough, even un-Christian, for the family. The backlash included school bullying, threats, the family cat's getting lynched and McCollum's losing her job. A challenge to the Illinois Supreme Court also failed.
In the autumn of 1947 a legal appeal to the US Supreme Court succeeded. It granted certiorari, in essence passing the case to the higher court. In March 1948 McCollum v Board of Education became a landmark in US constitutional law. Justice Hugo L. Black delivered the majority (8-1) ruling that the program had been unconstitutional, based on the First and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She was the daughter of Arthur Grifford Cromwell and Ruth Clara Clausz Cromwell of Wayne County, New York∼Vashti Ruth Cromwell, campaigner and writer: born Lyons, New York 6 November 1912; married 1933 John McCollum (deceased; three sons); died Champaign, Illinois 20 August 2006.
Vashti McCollum took on the US establishment in the 1940s in a brave campaign of conscience that was to end in a landmark ruling upholding the separation of church and state. It took a long, hard, often dirty, three-year struggle in a moral and political climate where the US religious and political right equated humanism with Communism.
In 1945 Vashti filed a writ of mandamus - a judicial writ directing an individual or organisation to perform a public or statutory duty - in the Champaign County Circuit Court. It hinged on the flouting, financially, of the First Amendment's separation of religion and government. Supporting her were the local Unitarian minister and a group of Chicago-based Jewish businessmen dedicated to equality of treatment. It failed. Things got rough, even un-Christian, for the family. The backlash included school bullying, threats, the family cat's getting lynched and McCollum's losing her job. A challenge to the Illinois Supreme Court also failed.
In the autumn of 1947 a legal appeal to the US Supreme Court succeeded. It granted certiorari, in essence passing the case to the higher court. In March 1948 McCollum v Board of Education became a landmark in US constitutional law. Justice Hugo L. Black delivered the majority (8-1) ruling that the program had been unconstitutional, based on the First and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
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