The year was 1960 and the Amish men in this film are facing a judge in Morgantown, Pennsylvania.
Their crime: their children weren’t going to public school.
New laws in the United States after World War II required children to stay in school until the age of 16.
School officials and law enforcement began enforcing the law in the Amish communities in the mid-50’s.
Emotions ran high, even for those in the Amish community.
In this hearing, one of the men objects to the law and is removed from the meeting.
Nine fathers in this hearing refused to pay the fines and took 5-day jail sentences instead.
One newspaper report said there were 125 parents in jail at the same time in one eastern PA township.
According to the National Constitution Center, it wasn’t until 1972 that the US Supreme Court ruled Amish children could not be forced to attend high school and the court allowed their one-room school system through 8th grade.
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