Minersville School District v. Gobitis
Attorney Ed Brennan will discuss Minersville School District v. Gobitis, the groundbreaking United States Supreme Court Case that restricted religious rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution.
The Court determined that public schools could compel students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and salute the flag in spite of any religious beliefs to the contrary. The Gobitis family of Minersville were Jehovah’s Witnesses; the Gobitis children in the Minersville Schools had refused to salute the flag. The children were expelled from the Minersville Schools in 1935 by Superintendent Charles Roudabush whereupon the parents sued and the case went through the court system until it reached the Supreme Court.
"Minersville, Mummers and the Origin of the Molly Maguires" by Mark Bulik, author of "Sons of Molly Maguire"
The Molly Maguires got their start in the area around Minersville, but it was a political form of mummery that helped pave the way for the labor troubles. Mark Bulik, the author of The Sons of Molly Maguire: The Irish Roots of America's First Labor War, will discuss the odd connections between mummers and Mollies and why the Mollies got started in the Minersville area. Bulik’s interest in Irish rebel gunmen in America dates back to the 1970 Sean Connery film The Molly Maguires. His mother grew up in Forestville, and she came from a long line of Irish American coal miners who worked in the Lytle and Phoenix Park collieries.
