Religion in the Schools

School Prayer.

As late as 1962 twenty-four states permitted or required children to begin the school day with prayer. One such state was New York, whose board of regents devised a prayer seemingly innocuous enough to avoid offending any of the variety of religious believers in that state. The prayer read as follows:

Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.

Court Rulings.

On 25 June 1962 in Engel v. Vitale the Supreme Court in a six-to-one decision overturned lower-court rulings that said states could require prayer in schools if individual students were permitted to remain silent. Justice Hugo Black, speaking for the majority, ruled that any required prayer was a violation of the separation of church and state:

There is no doubt that a daily classroom...

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