Word: andersson
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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When the Broyles oath law was passed in Illinois in 1955, we predicted that it would "catch" no subversives and serve only to harass people of conscience. The plight of ex-janitor Hjalmar Andersson is only one evidence of this. We look to the day when the legislature will undo its 1955 handiwork...
...teacher or parent in the city of Evanston. Ill. (pop. 75,300) cared more deeply about the Orrington elementary school than Swedish-born Hjalmar Andersson. For 23 years as janitor, he kept the building clean and in good repair: no matter how much there was to do, he always had time to joke or chat with the pupils and listen to their troubles. But for all his good humor, Janitor Andersson is a stubborn man. Last week he was barred from the school he loves because of a rather odd and lonely crusade...
...crusade began in 1955 when the state legislature passed the famed Broyles law requiring public employees to sign an anti-Communist loyalty oath to uphold the U.S. and Illinois Constitutions. Lutheran Andersson decided that the oath was a subtle limitation on an American's freedom to speak his mind. Unlike the hundreds of teachers who agreed with him but still bowed to the law, he flatly refused to sign. "I pledged my allegiance to the United States and to God when I took my citizenship oath in 1932," said he. "Must I then swear loyalty...
...wrote the service that his salary had been stopped, the revenuers were back again the next year with an additional demand for $69. Meanwhile, the school board began to get a bit embarrassed about having an unpaid crusader around. Last month, at the board's request, Janitor Andersson finally quit...
Letters poured in from his former pupils. "I want you to stay in school." wrote one little girl. "You always meet us at the door." wrote another, "and are so joyful." But last week, his savings gone, 52-year-old Bachelor Andersson began looking for another job, still determined, foolishly or not, never to sign the oath. "Too many people say 'Let George do it,'" he explains, "even in matters involving defense of individual freedom. Someone has to be George." But being George is not easy. "The day goes fast," says Hjalmar Andersson quietly, "when all the children...