"To Make Them Love and Respect Our Institutions": Educating Immigrants in Reconstruction-Era Chicago

Since the early days of the republic, Americans believed that education was the key to protecting the future of their nation: only an educated citizenry could handle the responsibility of democracy. In the wake of the Civil War, this mission took on greater intensity as the nation attempted to not only mend its fissures, but secure its future. Recently freed slaves and new European immigrants needed to be educated in the ways of democracy. As immigrants flocked to Chicago during the post-1871 fire building boom, they sent their children to Catholic and German language private schools in increasing numbers. City leaders feared that immigrant children were not being taught to worship democracy and republican ideals in their private schools and that eventually these children would be citizens who would threaten the stability of the nation with socialism and Catholicism. To entice immigrants to send their children to public schools, the Chicago Board of Education removed the King James Bible from schools, created compulsory education laws, and increased the availability of German language instruction. This paper will examine the steps taken by immigrant communities to control the education of their children and how the responses of local elites shaped Chicago’s Reconstruction-era educational policy.