Vashti McCollum
| Vashti McCollum | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Vashti Ruth Cromwell November 6, 1912 Lyons, New York |
| Died | August 20, 2006 (aged 93) Champaign, Illinois |
| Residence | Champaign, Illinois, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | BA Liberal Arts and Sciences, MA Mass Communications |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Spouse(s) | John Paschal McCollum |
| Parent(s) | Mr. and Mrs Arthur G. Cromwell |
Vashti Cromwell McCollum (November 6, 1912 – August 20, 2006) was the plaintiff in the landmark 1948 Supreme Court case McCollum v. Board of Education, which struck down religious education in public schools. The defendant in the case was the public school district of Champaign, Illinois; instructors chosen by three religious faiths had taught religion classes within the district's schools.
McCollum wrote a book on the case, One Woman's Fight (1953), became a world traveler and served two terms as president of the American Humanist Association from 1962–1965. She was also a signer of the Humanist Manifesto II in October 1973 and the Humanist Manifesto III in 2003.
In 1948 McCollum told The New York Times "As long as the public school is used to recruit the child or to segregate the children according to religion or to use the truancy power of the public schools to make them go to religions classes, I'm against it".
Named after the Old Testament feminist Queen Vashti and born as Vashti Ruth Cromwell in Lyons, New York, she was raised in nearby Rochester, New York. Baptized Lutheran, she was not raised in any religion and her father later became an atheist. She attended Cornell University on a full tuition scholarship until the stock market crash and deepening economic depression depleted the scholarship fund and forced her to withdraw from Cornell. She later transferred to the University of Illinois.
She met her husband-to-be, John Paschal McCollum, at Champaign-Urbana, and the couple married in 1933. The McCollums had three children: James, Dannel, and Errol. Dannel McCollum later served three four-year terms as mayor of Champaign, Illinois and wrote a book on the case that became the basis for a PBS documentary, The Lord Is Not on Trial Here.
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