Texas: Houston Public School Students Began Their Day With the Lord’s Prayer in the 1960s
A remarkable glimpse into the American school history has resurfaced from Houston, Texas, which shows public-school students participating in the Lord’s Prayer during their opening exercises in the 1960s.
The now trending scene was documented in a 1967 educational television report examining prayer in American schools. The footage therefore showed students in a Houston public-school classroom taking part in religious exercises as part of the beginning of the school day.
The practice is said to be particularly notable because it came only a few years after major U.S. Supreme Court decisions which allows and addresses prayers and Bible reading in public schools. In year 1962, the Court ruled in Engel v. Vitale that government-composed prayer in public schools was very much unconstitutional. After just one-year, Abington School District v. Schempp addressed devotional Bible reading and prayer in public schools.
Despite all those rulings, religious exercises reportedly continued in some schools and communities. The 1967 report indicated that Houston schools allowed prayer during opening exercises, while participation was described as voluntary.
The footage offers a rare historical window into how religion and public education intersected in Houston during a period of significant change in American law and society.
