Tag: Jehovah’s Witnesses

June 29, 1940: Jehova's Witnesses Detained in Richwood

On June 29, 1940, in the Nicholas County town of Richwood, Deputy Sheriff Martin Catlette and Police Chief Bert Stewart detained seven Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose patriotism had been questioned by the local American Legion.

The Legionnaires forced four of the Jehovah’s Witnesses to drink doses of castor oil. They then marched all seven through a jeering mob to the post office, where the Witnesses refused to salute the flag due to conflicts with their religion.

The incident quickly attracted the attention of the newly created Civil Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1942, the U.S. District Court in Charleston convicted Catlette and Stewart of violating the Witnesses’ civil rights. Catlette’s conviction was upheld by the Fourth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

It was the only federal conviction out of hundreds of brutal assaults on Jehovah’s Witnesses that swept the nation in 1940. It was also the Civil Rights Section’s first successful prosecution of public officials for using their office to abridge citizens’ civil rights. Ultimately, Catlette vs. the United States expanded legal protection for religious liberties in the country.

December 24,1942: Reinstatement of Seven Jehovah's Witnesses at Pittsburgh Plate Glass

On December 24, 1942, the President’s Committee on Fair Employment Practices ordered that seven Jehovah’s Witnesses have their jobs reinstated at the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company plant in Clarksburg. The seven had been fired a year earlier after declining to participate in union-sponsored, flag-salute ceremonies due to their religious beliefs. Union truckers refused to accept glass produced by the workers, prompting the company to fire all seven Jehovah’s Witnesses. 

Paul Schmidt, one of the seven, requested assistance from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who referred his letter to the president’s committee. Based on the committee’s ruling, the seven returned to work in March 1943 after the union promised that the workers would not be harassed.

This was just one of several incidents during the 1940s when Jehovah’s Witnesses were persecuted in West Virginia for their perceived unpatriotic behavior. They were violently attacked, often with the complicity of government officials, in numerous towns. Throughout the state, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ children were expelled from school for refusing to salute the flag. Three Kanawha County families filed court challenges to the expulsions and won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1943.

Exit mobile version