A Homefront Demand to Shut the German School
In 1917, a self-appointed 'Vigilance Corps' in Kennewick pressured a local Lutheran pastor to suspend classes, fearing the teaching of the German language during wartime.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Kennewick Vigilance Corps, a branch of the American Defense Society, has requested the discontinuance of the Bethlehem Lutheran parochial school during the war. While acknowledging the school exists by right of law, the Corps argued it would prove a foundation for division in the community. Their letter to Rev. Emil Kreidt stated that, despite his religious mission, the school is perceived by many as a 'German school' where the language of the enemy is taught. They cited growing friction between public school students and Lutheran students, warning that as local boys begin to return home dead from the front, bitterness toward German identity would rise, making the school a 'thorn in the flesh' of the community.
“The American born must forget the birth of the foreign born and the foreign born must help the native born to forget that he is aught but an American citizen.”
This reflects the intense nativist hysteria of WWI, which saw German-American institutions across Washington targeted for 'Americanization.' It serves as a stark reminder of how civic organizations can weaponize patriotism to target ethnic minorities during national crises.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.