Religion as identity in postwar America: The last serious attempt to put a question on religion in the United States Census

Journal of American History

Volumn 93, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 359-384

  Schultz, Kevin M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 33750701529     PISSN: 00218723     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/4486234     Document Type: Review

References (147)

1. New York Times, Aug. 2, 1957, pp. 21-22;
2. Public Affairs Committee Memo, Nov. 8, 1956, file 3, box 21, collection 10, Papers of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (Catholic University of America Archives, Washington, D.C.);
3. "God and the Census," Christian Century, Aug. 21, 1957, p. 979.
4. Questions about the number of churches and synagogues, their seating capacity, and their monetary value had been asked in 1850, 1860, and 1870, but never had the Census Bureau asked about an individuals faith. For the institutional resistance to asking a question on religion, see "Question on Religion in the CPS (Notes of a Meeting of the Census Advisory Committee on Population Statistics)," April 2, 1976, Religion Files, Records of the Bureau of the Census (Bureau of the Census, Suitland, Md.).
5. William Petersen, "Religious Statistics in the United States," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1 (Spring 1962), 165-78;
6. Dorothy Good, "Questions on Religion in the Census," Population Index, 25 (Jan. 1959), 3-16;
7. Charles Robert Foster, A Question on Religion (University, Ala., 1961).
8. For the three publications since 1961, see Anson Phelps Stokes and Leo Pfeffer, Church and State in the United States (New York, 1964), 574-76;
9. Leo Pfeffer, Church, State, and Freedom (Boston, 1967), 261-64;
10. and Peter Skerry, Counting on the Census? Race, Group Identity, and the Evasion of Politics (Washington, 2000), 36-37.
11. In 1942 Franklin D. Roosevelt said the United States was "a Protestant country and the Catholics and Jews are here under sufferance." Speaking to two members of his administration - one Catholic, one Jewish - Roosevelt added, so it is "up to you" to "go along with what I want." Michael R. Beschloss, The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945 (New York, 2002), 51. On the erasure of religion from modern American history,
12. see Jon Butler, "Jack-in-the-Box Faith: The Religion Problem in Modern American History," Journal of American History, 90 (March 2004), 1357-78. Historians of the Catholic and Jewish experiences have commented on the distinctive position of their subjects in the postwar period.
13. See Charles R. Morris, American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church (New York, 1997), 196-281;
14. Mark S. Massa, Catholics and American Culture: Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and the Notre Dame Football Team (New York, 1999);
15. Patrick Allitt, Catholic Intellectuals and Conservative Politics in America, 1950-1985 (Ithaca, 1993), 16-48;
16. John T. McGreevy, Catholicism and American Freedom: A History (New York, 2003), 166-215;
17. Edward S. Shapiro, A Time for Healing: American Jewry since World War II (Baltimore, 1992), 1-228;
18. Deborah Dash Moore, GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation (Cambridge, Mass., 2004);
19. Deborah Dash Moore, To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L.A. (New York, 1994);
20. and Leonard Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America (New York, 1994), 150-74.
21. Major works that ignore or minimize the importance of religious identities in the postwar period include Gary Gerstle, American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, 2001), 187-237, esp. 231-37;
22. Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom (New York, 1998), 236-47, 268-69;
23. and James Patterson, Oxford History of the United States, vol. X: Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (New York, 1996), 328-31.
24. On Catholics and Jews in the development of postwar pluralism, see Kevin M. Schultz, "The Decline of the Melting Pot: Catholics, Jews, and Cultural Pluralism in Postwar America" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2005).
25. On the "high tide" of American anti-Semitism, see Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, 105-49, esp. 128.
26. Glen Jeansonne, "Combating Anti-Semitism: The Case of Gerald L. K. Smith," in Anti-Semitism in American History, ed. David A. Gerber (Urbana, 1986), 152-66.
27. On the 1910 census, when American Jews prevented inclusion of a question about Jewish identity (the context was whether Jews were a unique race), see Joel Perlmann, "Race or People": Federal Race Classification for Europeans in America, 1898-1913 (Annandale-On-Hudson, 2001).
28. William Seltzer and Margo Anderson, "The Dark Side of Numbers: The Role of Population Data Systems in Human Rights Abuses," Social Research, 68 (Summer 2001), 481-513.
29. "Appraisal of census programs," Feb. 1954, folder 8, box 5, A. Ross Eckler Files, Records of the Bureau of the Census, RG 29 (National Archives, Washington, D.C.).
30. On the Rhode Island farmer, see William Petersen, The Politics of Population (Garden City, 1964), 264;
31. Philip Hauser, "Memo," n.d., Religion folder, Philip Hauser Files, Records of the Bureau of the Census (National Archives, Washington, D.C.);
32. and Foster, Question on Religion, 6.
33. For the quotation, see Robert W. Burgess to Irving M. Engel, Oct. 16, 1957, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, RG 347.17.10, Papers of the American Jewish Committee (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, N.Y.).
34. Conrad Taeuber interview by Robert Voight, April 12,1989, in U.S. Census Bureau, Conrad Taeuber - Oral History, http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/oh- Taeuber.pdf;
35. New York Times, Sept. 24, 1999, p. B11.
36. On the meeting with Rupert Vance, see Foster, Question on Religion, 6.
37. Conrad Taeuber and Irene B. Taeuber, The Changing Population of the United States (New York, 1958).
38. The quotations come from Robert W. Burgess's obituary, New York Times, May 28, 1969, p. 47.
39. U.S. Bureau of the Census, "First List of Questions Concerning the 1960 Censuses of Population and Housing," Nov. 30, 1956, box 21, Religion Files, Records of the Bureau of the Census (Bureau of the Census, Suitland, Md.).
40. "Getting Religious Statistics," America, Sept. 1, 1956, p. 406;
41. Editor, "Taking the Census," America ibid., Oct. 13, 1956, p. 22.
42. For the development of this paragraph, the author is indebted to Margo Anderson. On the controversial implications of the census, see Petersen, Politics of Population;
43. William Alonso and Paul Starr, eds., The Politics of Numbers (New York, 1987);
44. and Margo J. Anderson and Stephen E. Fienberg, Who Counts? The Politics of Census-Taking in Contemporary America (New York, 1999).
45. "Getting Religious Statistics," 406. Census information is not "anonymous," but "confidential." In anonymous surveys, the respondent's name is never known by the surveyor. In confidential surveys, the name is known but not disclosed. Thanks to Judith Tanur for pointing this out.
46. Robert W. Burgess, "Taking the Census," America, Oct. 13, 1956, p. 22.
47. U.S. Census Bureau, "General Statement Regarding Testing of a Possible Question on Religion or Religious Affiliation," n.d., Robert Burgess File, Records of the Department of Commerce, RG 40 (National Archives). On the timing of the press release, see Foster, Question on Religion, 8-9.
48. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports: Population Characteristics, series P-20, no. 79, Feb. 2, 1958, p. 1;
49. Petersen, Politics of Population, 257.
50. U.S. Census Bureau, "General Statement Regarding Testing of a Possible Question on Religion," 1.
51. CPA Board of Directors Memo, Oct. 8, 1956, file 3, box 21, collection 10, Papers of the National Catholic Welfare Conference.
52. Foster, Question on Religion, 9.
53. For Thomas B. Kenedy's position, see New York Times, July 19, 1957, p. 18;
54. and an article in the Washington, D.C., archdiocesan newspaper: Washington Catholic Standard, Jan. 18, 1957,
55. clipping, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee. On those for and against the question on religion,
56. see U.S. Bureau of the Census, "A Partial List of Reactions of Organized Groups and Newspapers to a Question on Religion in the 1960 Census," Nov. 19, 1957,
57. in Memo from T. Kenedy, Nov. 26, 1957, file 3, box 21, collection 10, Papers of the National Catholic Welfare Conference;
58. and Donald J. Bogue, The Population of the United States (Glencoe, 1959), 688n2.
59. On midcentury suspicions of Catholics, see John T. McGreevy, "Thinking on One's Own: Catholicism in the American Intellectual Imagination, 1928-1960," Journal of American History, 84 (June 1997), 97-131.
60. For the Catholic organizations and publications supporting the census question, see Bureau of the Census, "Partial List of Reactions of Organized Groups and Newspapers to a Question on Religion in the 1960 Census."
61. Jewish groups had accused H. S. Linfield of raising the specter of a question on religion for at least a decade. See Fine to Philip Waterman, March 8, 1948, 1950 Census File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee.
62. See Marshall Sklare to John Slawson, Dec. 12, 1956, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee.
63. For the development of strategies and the clear recognition of the principal opponent, see Theodore Leskes to Sol Rabkin, July 19, 1957, ADL-AJC Joint Statements File, box 45, RG 1-77, Papers of the American Jewish Congress (American Jewish Historical Society, New York, N.Y.);
64. Jules Cohen to NCRAC Membership, Aug. 6, 1957, U.S. Census to YMCA, 1957 File, box 26, RG I-337, Papers of the National Jewish Welfare Board, Papers of the American Jewish Congress ibid.;
65. and "Minutes," June 17, 1957, file 103, box 6, Papers of the American Jewish Congress; Rabkin to Herman Edelsberg, April 26, 1957, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee.
66. For the American Jewish Congress's strategy of having rabbis and community members write the U.S. Census Bureau, see Shad Polier to Division and Chapter Presidents, Oct. 22, 1957, CLSA Memoranda File, box 24, Papers of the American Jewish Congress.
67. For the American Civil Liberties Union's new position, see New York Times, Aug. 2, 1957, p. 17. Israel Goldstein to Editor,
68. New York Times ibid., 21.
69. Burgess to Engel, Oct. 16, 1957, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee.
70. For the American Jewish Congress's official stand, see, for example, American Jewish Congress, "Religion Question in the Census: Resolution Adopted by the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Congress," June 17, 1957, file 103, box 6, Papers of the American Jewish Congress.
71. For Rabbi S. H. Markowitz's bulletin, see National Jewish Post and Opinion, Jan. 17, 1958, p. 1.
72. Markowitz was an active committee member of the Jewish Statistical Bureau. Sklare to Slawson, Dec. 12, 1956, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee;
73. American Jewish Committee memorandum, attached to Fine to Franck, Feb. 25, 1957, Papers of the American Jewish Committee ibid.
74. For Roosevelt's claim, see Beschloss, Conquerors, 41. Good, "Questions on Religion in the Census," 9. On the "emotional reaction" to the question,
75. see Earl Morse to the American Jewish Committee, Sept. 17, 1957, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee.
76. See Götz Aly and Karl Heinz Roth, The Nazi Census: Identification and Control in the Third Reich, trans. Edwin Black (Philadelphia, 2004), 8-55, esp. 10-14 and 18-22;
77. and Seltzer and Anderson, "Dark Side of Numbers," 481-513.
78. Most Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Congress, were concerned about group maintenance in a suburbanizing America. Its director of membership complained about the lack of data on the location of America's Jews, especially considering "the tremendous exodus to the suburbs which has characterized population trends, including Jewish," since World War II. Notes from the Officers Committee Meeting, May 13, 1957, file 72, box 4, Papers of the American Jewish Congress;
79. Sanford Solender to Samuel D. Gershovitz, June 28, 1957, United States Census to YMCA, 1957 File, box 26, Papers of the National Jewish Welfare Board.
80. See Solender to Gershovitz, June 28, 1957, United States Census to YMCA, 1957 File, box 26, Papers of the National Jewish Welfare Board;
81. Gershovitz s response penciled at the bottom of Solender s initial correspondence, Papers of the American Jewish Committee ibid.;
82. Solender to Gershovitz, Aug. 6, 1957, ibid.;
83. and Cohen to Solender (forwarded to Gershovitz), Aug. 26, 1957, Papers of the National Jewish Welfare Board ibid.
84. For the Jewish Community Relations Council's decision not to publicize its desire for a question on religion, see Harry Winton to Philip Jacobson, Sept. 18, 1957, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee.
85. For the only public break, made after the matter had been settled, see New York Association of Rabbis, press release, Dec. 30, 1957, Decennial Census: Organization Responses File, Papers of the American Jewish Committee ibid.
86. "God and the Census," 979;
87. Burgess to Engel, Oct. 16, 1957, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee, 3;
88. Bureau of the Census, "Partial List of Reactions of Organized Groups and Newspapers to a Question on Religion in the 1960 Census"; New York Times, Aug. 6, 1957, p. 25.
89. For example, an authoritative Christian Science manual reads, "Christian Scientists shall not report for publication the number of members of The Mother Church, nor that of the branch churches. According to the Scriptures they shall turn away from personality and numbering the people." Mary Baker Eddy, Manual of the Mother Church: The First Church of Christ Scientist (Boston, 1910), 48.
90. Bureau of the Census, "Partial List of Reactions of Organized Groups and Newspapers to a Question on Religion in the 1960 Census."
91. Leo Pfeffer, "Is It the Government's Business?," Christian Century, Oct. 30, 1957, p. 1283;
92. "God and the Census," 979.
93. "Religion in the Census?," Commonweal, Aug. 2, 1957, p. 438;
94. Joseph B. Schuyler to Editor, "Religion in the Census," Commonweal ibid., Sept. 13, 1957, pp. 591-92.
95. For the number of clippings, see Foster, Question on Religion, 11. Minneapolis Tribune, July 1, 1957.
96. For the decision to forge a strong public reaction, see Polier to Division and Chapter Presidents, Oct. 22, 1957, "CLSA Materials July-Dec. 1957" (American Jewish Congress, New York, N.Y.).
97. The author is indebted to Mark Silk and Marc Stern for helping him access these files. For the bombardment of letters, see A. L. Feinberg, memo, Oct. 23, 1957, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee.
98. Foster, Question on Religion, 19.
99. Thomas Kenedy to Archbishop John Francis O'Hara, Nov. 26, 1957, file 3, box 21, collection 10, Papers of the National Catholic Welfare Conference.
100. For the press release, see Foster, Question on Religion, 19-20.
101. Francis Cardinal Spellman to Sinclair Weeks, April 12, 1958, file 3, box 21, collection 10, Papers of the National Catholic Welfare Conference.
102. For the quotation from Business Week,
103. see Burgess to Engel, Jan. 15, 1958, Ch-St / US Census File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee.
104. Bogue, Population of the United States, 688-89;
105. American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Year Book, 1958 (New York, 1958), 4.
106. Foster, Question on Religion, 12;
107. New York Times, Dec. 13, 1957, p. 30;
108. "Minutes, Executive Committee," Dec. 17, 1957, file 103, box 6, Papers of the American Jewish Congress.
109. This explanation is inferred from the language used in Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, 1.
110. Current Population Reports Ibid.
111. Current Population Reports Ibid., 2.
112. Current Population Reports Ibid., table 2.
113. For the first complaint, see Rabkin to David A. Brody, March 13, 1958, Ch-St / US Census File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee.
114. For the second, see H. S. Linfield, "The New Statistics of Religious Groups," March 1958, ibid.
115. Nathaniel H. Goodrich to Edwin J. Lukas, May 20, 1958, Ch-St / US Census File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee. Cf.
116. Foster, Question on Religion, 14.
117. For Jewish leaders' awareness of Robert W. Burgess's attitude to their argument, see Engel to Burgess, Jan. 10, 1958, Ch-St / US Census File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee;
118. and Burgess to Engel, Jan. 15, 1958, ibid. On the meeting of "like-minded others,"
119. see Goodrich to Jacobson, April 21, 1958, Papers of the American Jewish Committee ibid. For politicians' attention,
120. see Brody to Rabkin, May 12, 1958, Papers of the American Jewish Committee ibid.;
121. and Rabkin to H. S. Linfield, July 1, 1958, Papers of the American Jewish Committee ibid.
122. Burgess to Linfield, May 15, 1958, Papers of the American Jewish Committee ibid.
123. For Frederick H. Mueller's communication to Burgess, see Foster, Question on Religion, 19.
124. Question on Religion Ibid., 14.
125. Good, "Questions on Religion in the Census," 11-12;
126. Petersen, "Religious Statistics in the United States," 178, 173.
127. Sidney Goldstein has graciously shared copies of the data with me. See Sidney Goldstein, "Socioeconomic Differentials among Religious Groups in the United States" American Journal of Sociology, 74 (May 1969), 612-31.
128. U.S. Bureau of the Census, "Tabulations of Data on the Social and Economic Characteristics of Major Religious Groups, March 1957," unpublished report (in Kevin M. Schultz's possession).
129. For Catholic transitions, see Andrew M. Greeley, The American Catholic: A Social Portrait (New York, 1977);
130. Andrew M. Greeley, William C. McCready, and Kathleen McCourt, Catholic Schools in a Declining Church (Kansas City, 1976);
131. and Andrew M. Greeley and Peter H. Rossi, The Education of Catholic Americans (Chicago, 1966), 118-46. For Jewish transitions,
132. see Marshal Sklare, The Jews: Social Patterns of an American Group (Glencoe, 1958);
133. Marshall Sklare, "Intermarriage and the Jewish Future," Commentary, 37 (April 1964), 46-52;
134. Marshall Sklare, Joseph Greenblum, and Benjamin B. Ringer, Not Quite at Home: How an American Jewish Community Lives with Itself and Its Neighbors (New York, 1969);
135. and Thomas B. Morgan, "The Vanishing American Jew," Look, May 5, 1964, pp. 42-46.
136. Jeansonne, "Combating Anti-Semitism," 152-66;
137. Naomi W. Cohen, Jews in Christian America: The Pursuit of Religious Equality (New York, 1992), 123-239;
138. Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962);
139. Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963). For a criticism of the individualistic "procedural republic" as harmful to the perpetuation of American communal life,
140. see Michael J. Sandel, Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy (Cambridge, Mass., 1996), 3-119, 274-351.
141. Burgess to Engel, Oct. 16, 1957, Decennial 1960 File, box 45, Papers of the American Jewish Committee, 2.
142. "The author is grateful to Mark Silk for assistance in developing this portrait.
143. Philip Roth, Goodbye, Columbus, and Five Short Stories (Boston, 1959), 176.
144. Schuyler, "Religion in the Census," 592.
145. Will Herberg did not comment publicly or, according to his private papers, privately on the census debate, perhaps because he was not a part of the Jewish communal groups and perhaps because demography was less interesting to him than moral and theological issues. Will Herberg, Protestant - Catholic - Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology (Garden City, 1955), 52-55;
146. Will Herberg Papers, Will Herberg Collection (Drew University, Madison, N.J.).
147. "Pluralism - a National Menace," Christian Century, June 13, 1951, pp. 701-3.