In 1922 the KKK led a successful campaign to compel Oregon parents to send kids to public schools. #OTD 3/16/1925 the Society of Sisters-Catholic nuns operating a private school & orphanage-argued to SCOTUS the law was unconstitutional…#CourtingHistory pic.twitter.com/90Tp65VLB7

— Sheldon Gilbert (@sheldongilbert) March 17, 2018

2/ They argued private schools (especially Catholic schools which often had immigrant students) were a threat to 'American' culture. 53% of Oregon voters supported a ballot measure to make it a crime if parents didn't send kids aged 8-16 to public school…https://t.co/WbHoPOzPz9

— Sheldon Gilbert (@sheldongilbert) March 17, 2018

3/ Excerpt from the printed ballot that voters would have seen when voting for law; it argues "When every parent in our land has a child in our public schools, then and only then will there be a united interest in the growth and higher efficiency of our schools"… pic.twitter.com/35V8TdBzwX

— Sheldon Gilbert (@sheldongilbert) March 17, 2018

4/ It warns voters private schools will divide Americans into "cliques, cults and factions, each striving, not for the good of the whole, but for the supremacy of themselves"… KKK leader's argument was also populist: "we do not believe in snobbery"… "https://t.co/ogIJ0M0GzF

— Sheldon Gilbert (@sheldongilbert) March 17, 2018

5/ The bill's slogan was "Free Public Schools Open to All, Good enough for All, Attended by All. All for the Public School and the Public School for All. One Flag, One School, One Language"… See 33 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 995 (1992) https://t.co/V7rJfUg6J8

— Sheldon Gilbert (@sheldongilbert) March 17, 2018