Massachusetts Teachers' Oath - Passage

Passage

In response to political radicalism during the Great Depression, several states passed legislation that required public school teachers to submit signed oaths of loyalty to the state and/or federal Constitutions. This movement, supported by the national American Legion and other organizations, gained strength in Massachusetts in 1934 and 1935.

In 1935, after stormy hearings before the General Court's Joint Education Committee at which Harvard President James B. Conant, historian Samuel Eliot Morison, and the presidents of several colleges and universities spoke against the legislation, the Republican-dominated House and Senate enacted teachers' oath legislation. The oath bill was introduced by Democratic state Representative Thomas Dorgan. Dorgan became known as the "Father of the Teachers' Oath," and resisted all efforts at repeal, both in and out of office.

The Massachusetts legislation was unique in that it applied to private educational institutions as well as public. It prompted the resignations of two Tufts University professors, Earle Winslow and Alfred C. Lane in December 1935. Lane moved to Florida, but Winslow decided to run for the Democratic Party's nomination for the 9th Congressional District in 1936. In the September primary, he came in 5th out of six candidates, earning only 1,452 votes out of 27, 948 cast. Thomas Dorgan lost in his bid for the nomination for Suffolk County Court Clerk. He secured a position with the state Department of Taxation, and in 1939 Democratic Mayor Maurice Tobin appointed him "legislative agent" for the City of Boston.