Why do we recite the Pledge?

Americans recite the Pledge of Allegiance to express loyalty to the United States, to its flag, and to the constitutional values the flag represents. The act of pledging is meant to be a brief, shared affirmation of unity, especially across a country as vast and varied as the United States. Public schools have recited the Pledge each morning since the early twentieth century, civic groups such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars open meetings with it, Congress and many state legislatures begin sessions with it, and federal employees sometimes recite it at swearing-in ceremonies.

The recitation supports several civic functions. It reinforces the idea, voiced in the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution, that Americans are united by shared political principles rather than by ethnicity, language, or religion. It teaches children the meaning of liberty, justice, and indivisible national identity. It connects new citizens to those traditions during naturalization ceremonies, when many newly sworn Americans recite the Pledge for the first time as citizens immediately after taking the Oath of Allegiance. It serves as a moment of common purpose at events where Americans of different backgrounds gather.

The history of the Pledge underscores its civic role. Francis Bellamy wrote it in 1892 to mark the four hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage and to instill patriotism in waves of new immigrant children attending public schools. President Benjamin Harrison endorsed Bellamy's plan, and on October 12, 1892, an estimated twelve million students recited it during Columbus Day exercises. Congress recognized the Pledge in the Flag Code of 1942 and added the phrase under God in 1954 during the Cold War.

Public school recitation is voluntary under West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), which held that students cannot be compelled to participate. Justice Robert Jackson's opinion is one of the most quoted in First Amendment law: if there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion. The voluntary nature of the Pledge actually strengthens its meaning, because freely chosen loyalty is more genuine than coerced affirmation. Naturalization candidates who recite the Pledge after taking the Oath of Allegiance perform one of the most concrete public acts of becoming an American citizen.