How Oregon almost killed private schools 100 years ago
PDX HIBERNIAN INDEPENDENT Volume Two - Number Fifty-One – 13 May 2025
More than an email. Less than a newspaper. Delivered early on the first and third Thursday morning of every month. Published by The Portland Hibernian Society.
Greetings.
At this Thursday evening’s meeting (May 15), we’ll consider Oregon’s effort to shut down private schools a long time ago and what the consequences for Catholic education would have been in if the Federal Courts hadn’t intervened to overturn the will of the majority in November 1922.
No parish schools. No St. Mary’s Academy. No CYO.
ATTEMPTED HOSTILE TAKEOVER OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN OREGON A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
Join members of the Portland Hibernian Society this Thursday, May 15 at Kells Restaurant on SW 2nd at 6 P.M. for a discussion of Pierce vs Society of Sisters, the case that saved private schools almost exactly one hundred years ago. Sarah Cantor, Director of Archives and Heritage Center of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, Hibernian Katie Hennessy, who had aunts in the Society, and Hibernian historian Bill Gallagher will tell this story in a way you’ve never heard it. This history has been mostly overlooked.
Oregon Governor Walter Pierce (center) and the Society of Sisters (Left and right) squared off in a court battle over private school in Oregon that went to the Supreme Court for a ruling on June 1, 1925.
One hundred years ago on June 1, 1925, the Supreme Court issued a momentous ruling in the most significant case for private schools in America in the twentieth century. The Oregon Compulsory Education Act, forcing all students to attend only public schools, was passed by voters 52% to 47%. Was it constitutional? Those with the most to lose took Oregon to court to find out. That court case is Pierce vs the Society of Sisters. A unanimous Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (SNJM) and private schools in Oregon. Efforts in several other states to shut down private schools were abandoned. The voters said yes. The Courts said no.
How private and parochial schools lost in the Oregon court of public opinion at the polls in 1922, but then won in the Supreme Court of the United States in 1925. It's a great story that’s seldom told.
For a preview of the presentation and exploration of the relevance of Pierce in the PDX HI CLICK HERE.
Come hear the story and discuss it this Thursday evening, May 15 at Kells Restaurant 212 SW 2ND Ave.
No-host dinner at Six P.M. Presentation at Six Forty-Five. Everyone is welcome!
Go raibh maith agat.