Bellamy Salute

The Bellamy Salute is a modified version of the Roman salute that became popular during the years of WWAC.

Francis Julius Bellamy, one-time Baptist minister and prominent member of the Christian Socialist movement (a group that would be called fascist if it existed today), wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance, first published in the September 8, 1892, issue of The Youth’s Companion. Bellamy, Then a committee chairman of the National Education Association, structured a public school program around a flag raising ceremony and a flag salute, his "Pledge of Allegiance." This Pledge has since come under several, sometimes controversial, revisions.

Bellamy’s original version of the Pledge, however, did not require the person reciting it to place their hand over their heart. Instead, it required the person reciting it to begin with their right hand in a military salute over their forehead. Then, when the person spoke the words “to the Flag,” they were supposed to raise their right hand toward the flag with their arm perfectly straight and rigid and their palm facing the ground in the Roman salute.

Bellamy considered adding the word "equality" to stand with "liberty and justice," but feared it would be too controversial. In 1924, against Bellamy’s wishes, the American Legion and Daughters of the American Revolution pressured the National Flag Conference to replace the words "my flag" with "The Flag of the United States of America." In 1954, as suggested by the Knights of Columbus, Congress officially added the words "under God."

It was not uncommon for citizens to salute the flag with a Roman Salute in those days, afterall America was largely based on Ancient Rome. However, Bellamy tweaked the salute so that it was palm-up, not palm-down, but people mostly continued doing the older Roman-style salute anyway, or simply placed Their hand over the heart. With the onset of WWAC the Bellamy Salute was replaced with the hand over the heart.