The words “under God” were added to the Pledge of Allegiance a decade after my father graduated Columbia High School in New Jersey in 1944. 

He was irritated at the time. Dad’s a Church-goer, but he doesn’t like change. He’s old-school conservative in that way. Why fix what wasn’t broken?

Recently, Dad told me that in the early 1940s high school began with one boy leading the class in the pledge. Then one of the girls read from the Bible, typically a Psalm. 

He said that they held out their right arm in what was known as the “Bellamy Salute.” In 1942, concerned that it too closely resembled the Nazi salute, Congress mandated people to put your hand over your heart.

Ten years later, on June 14, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law a bill that added the words “under God” to the pledge. It was done in large part to draw a distinction with the communists in the Soviet Union who were self-proclaimed atheists. 

My mom was in high school then and she recalls how students were required to start adding those two words when they said the pledge from one day to the next. 

We tend to assume history is more linear, fixed and defined. Often, we overlook or forget how customs and practices evolve over time. 

The pledge was borne out of an effort in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival in the New World of Chrisopher Columbus. The text was first drafted by Captain George Thatcher Balch and later edited by Francis Bellamy. 

In 1923, the words “my Flag” were changed to “the Flag of the United States,” so foreign-born people would not confuse loyalties between their birth countries. A year later, the words “of America” were added. 

The Supreme Court ruled in 1943 that students cannot be compelled to recite the pledge and cannot be punished if they don’t. Forty-seven U.S. states require the Pledge be recited in public schools, with varying degrees of exemptions to opt out. 

My kids attended a school which didn’t always start with the Pledge; it was up to each teacher. 

Knowing not everyone participated, the music teacher insisted every one of her classes throughout the day start with the pledge. 

After they finished, she had them sing God Bless America.