2/1/2024 0 Comments 1864 coinage actIn his 1963 “Segregation Now, Segregation Forever” speech, Alabama Governor George Wallace said that, since “we are all the handiwork of God,” “we warn those, of any group, who would follow the false god of communistic amalgamation that we will not surrender… our freedom of race and religion” ( Black Past). That’s how white America was able to denounce the Civil Rights Movement as a communist, atheist conspiracy, despite key figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. The God that the United States is said to trust in isn’t just any God: He’s a white, Protestant, Christian god. At the time, the beaches of his home state were sundown towns that banned Black, Latine, and Jewish people after dark ( NBC Miami). The “freedom” that Bennett wished to protect with divinely-branded currency didn’t apply to everyone. Recognize Christian privilege and take action for inclusion in workplaces and schools.Support religious freedoms and the protection of public institutions like schools as secular, inclusive spaces.“In these days, when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, we should continually look for ways to strengthen the foundations of our freedom” ( Politico). “While the sentiment of trust in God is universal and timeless, these particular four words ‘In God We Trust’ are indigenous to our country,” said Florida Democrat Charles Bennett, who sponsored the bill. currency thanks to federal legislation in 1955, as the Cold War escalated following the close of the Korean War two years prior. Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one) as the national motto and be required to appear on all U.S. Though President Theodore Roosevelt objected to the phrase in 1907, judging it sacrilegious, he was overruled by Congress in the face of public dissent. Chase proposed adding “In God We Trust” to two-cent coins to promote national unity in the midst of the Civil War ( The Street). In 1864, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. civil religion: an ideology that has often cloaked abuses of power in the trappings of religious faith ( Time). First implemented to capitalize on religious sentiment as the Civil War waged and then made universal to play off the anti-communist hysteria of the Cold War, “In God We Trust” is a key example of U.S. coin and bill features the national motto, “In God We Trust.” It appeared on coins following the Coinage Act of April 22, 1864, and on all currency minted after 1956.
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