I pledge allegiance to my Flag

I pledge allegiance to my Flag,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
October 11, 1892

I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
June 1923

I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
June 14, 1924

I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
June 14, 1954

Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. The Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth's Companion, the leading family magazine and the Reader's Digest of its day.

In 1923 the National Flag Conference, under the leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge's words, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States.'

The same group, in 1924, added the words "of America." Bellamy disliked both of these changes, but his protests were ignored.

In 1954, Congress, after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus and support of President Eisenhower, added the words 'under God,' to the Pledge.

The Pledge had now become both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.