Vashti McCollum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vashti Cromwell McCollum (November 6, 1912–August 20, 2006) was the plaintiff in a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1948 in a landmark ruling that struck down religious education in the public schools. The defendent in the McCollum case was the school district of Champaign, Illinois, wherein instructors chosen by three religious faiths had taught classes within the public schools.

Born Vashti Ruth Cromwell in Lyons, New York in 1912, she was raised in nearby Rochester and attended Cornell University on a full tuition scholarship until the stock market crash and deepening economic depression depleted the scholarship fund and forced her to withdraw from Cornell. She later transferred to the University of Illinois. She met her husband-to-be, John P. McCollum in Champaign-Urbana, and the couple married in 1933.

The McCollums had three children: James, Dannel, and Errol. Dannel McCollum later served three four-year terms as mayor of Champaign.

In 1944, James, then a fourth grader enrolled in the Champaign public schools, came home with a parental consent form for his attendance at "voluntary" religion classes during the school day. The form allowed choice between Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish instruction. The religious education program in the Champaign public schools had been established in 1940, and was based on a concept known as released time. Released time was also known as the "Gary plan", after Gary, Indiana, where the concept was devised in 1914. The released time concept allowed children to be released from public school to attend religious instruction at their house of worship. In the released time system in Champaign, the three represented religious faiths chose clergy and laypeople to teach the religion classes, which were taught in the public schools.

After some reticence, the McCollums allowed their eight-year-old son to attend the Champaign school district's Protestant religious course during his fourth grade year, but after reviewing the course materials, they withdrew permission for James' participation for the following year in the fifth grade, based on their belief that the content of Champaign's religion classes was inappropriate for the public schools. James – the only student in his class not participating in the religion class – was subsequently pressured by his teachers to conform, and his parents were pressured by school officials to permit him to join the religion classes to help James "get along".

The McCollums were angered at their son's ostracization by his teachers, which included James being forced to sit alone in a hallway while the other pupils attended religion classes. After a meeting with school officials which failed to change the school district's policy, McCollum filed suit against Champaign's school district in July 1945. During the court case, McCollum described herself as an atheist, though later in life used the term Humanist to describe her beliefs.

McCollum's suit, McCollum v. Board of Education of School District No. 71, Champaign County, Ill. et al. was filed in the county circuit court and sought to bar the classes, which were taught by members of a private religious association and not public school employees. The petition before the court complained that the school district's practice was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which provides for the separation of church and state, as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees that the law will apply equally to all people.

The county court ruled against McCollum and was subsequently upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court upon appeal. The U. S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case In an 8-1 decision announced March 8, 333 US 203 1948, the high court reversed the ruling of the lower court, and held that the school district's religious instruction program was unconstitutional.