History of law banning religious garb in Oregon

Source Oregon Blue Book- History


Religious Freedom vs the Klan
  July 22, 2009

The State of Oregon recently enacted a law called the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA ).  Although this should have generated fanfare among religious minorities, for whom there is insufficient protection under federal employment discrimination laws, Oregon's WRFA has, in fact, generated enormous protest among Sikh Americans and a diverse coalition of religious groups and civil libertarians throughout the nation.

What is the problem?

The problem is that Oregon's WRFA does not apply to public school teachers who wear religious clothing in private adherence to faith.  Although Oregon's WRFA undoubtedly expands workplace religious freedom for most Oregonians, the public school exemption was designed to preserve an archaic law—enacted with the support of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s—which forbids public school teachers from wearing any form of religious clothing.  In effect, observant Sikhs, Muslims, Jews—and others who wear religious clothing in private adherence to faith—are shut out of the teaching profession in Oregon.  With the possible exception of Pennsylvania, no other state in the country restricts public school teachers in this manner.

When did the Ku Klux Klan come into the picture?

Oregon’s teacher garb law was enacted nearly a century ago by sympathizers of the Ku Klux Klan for the purpose of suppressing Catholics. According to this Oregon History webpage which tells the story of Klan involvement to force children to attend public schools and strong-arm those who wore religious garb- priests, nuns and purportedly even rosaries.

For The source and other info check out the following excerpt from Oregon's history and this law: Source Oregon Blue Book- History

The Klan, FOPS, and Scottish Rite Masons sponsored a bill, passed in 1922 in the general election, to compel all children to attend public schools. The overtly anti-Catholic measure threatened to close all parochial schools and military academies. The state Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional in 1924 and the U.S. Supreme Court concurred in 1925. The Ku Klux Klan found a strange champion in the Oregon legislature. Kaspar K. Kubli, speaker of the House of Representatives, happened to possess winning initials and became a rallying point for efforts to drive through the Alien Property Act of 1923. The law prohibited Japanese from purchasing or leasing land in Oregon. The legislature also passed a law forbidding wearing of sectarian clothing, namely priestly vestments or nuns' habits, in classrooms.

Many thanks to friends over at SALDEF for the history behind this bill... and many of our resources regaring this issue.