Children recite it every morning at the start of the school day. Both houses of Congress begin every legislative session with it. Almost every American knows its words by heart.
However, many may not know that the Pledge of Allegiance as we know it today is different from the one recited throughout much of its history — all because of two words.
That change came in 1954, when President Dwight Eisenhower signed a congressional resolution into law adding the words “under God” to the pledge. The change capped a Knights of Columbus–led campaign, according to Timothy Saccoccia, assistant supreme leader and vice president of public policy for the Knights.
Prior to the change, the Pledge of Allegiance, which Francis Bellamy wrote in 1892, ended “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The Knights’ call to add “under God” was prompted by the Cold War. As the U.S. and the Soviet Union became increasingly entangled in the Cold War in the early 1950s, the Knights decided that the pledge should make a bold statement, Saccoccia said.
“At the start of the Cold War, the Knights, and Catholics in general, are starting to see the anti-religious, extremely secular nature of communism,” he explained. “The Knights wanted to do something to combat that, and so, they came upon the idea of changing the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance.”
The campaign to have the words inserted into the pledge was a grassroots initiative. In 1951, Saccoccia explained, local Knights nationwide began including the words when reciting the pledge at the start of their meetings, “and the Knights’ board of directors saw this and said, ‘We really need to start making a push for this.’ ”
That same year, the board of directors adopted a resolution to formally include “under God” in the pledge at the start of all meetings of the more than 700 Knights’ groups across the country. Then, state councils of Knights in five states — New York, Delaware, Florida, Michigan, and South Dakota — took the lead and “started to put the pressure on” lawmakers in their states to adopt the change, Saccoccia said.
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In 1952, delegates attending the Knights’ Supreme Convention in Los Angeles approved a resolution calling on Congress to amend the pledge. The resolution was sent to President Harry Truman (in his last year in office), Vice President Alben Barkley, and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn.
Over the next year, the pressure campaign continued with phone calls and letters to the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
U.S. Representative Louis Rabaut of Michigan introduced a resolution adding “under God” to the pledge on April 20, 1953. The initial resolution stalled, but Rabaut kept pushing the legislation until both the House and Senate approved it, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed it into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.
Two years later, in 1956, Eisenhower signed another law that officially declared “In God We Trust” as the official motto of the United States.
Looking back at the Knights’ role in amending the pledge, Saccoccia said it’s not surprising that a Catholic fraternal organization led the way: “Being patriotic is an important part of being Catholic.”