Iowa Almanac
Iowa Almanac -- Tuesday, November 19, 2024
They ran for the corn fields. More from the Iowa Almanac in a moment. Legendary Iowa broadcaster Jim Zobble was best known for the thousands of sporting events he covered on the radio, but his career included far more than sports. Jim Zobble, 50 years of broadcast memories, is a 2-CD set including not only famous game calls, but interviews with celebrities and politicians, all personally selected by Zobble himself. Get your copy of Jim Zobble, 50 years of broadcast memories exclusively at TotallyIowa.com. In the mid-1960s, Amish, living near Hazleton in Buchanan County, found themselves in the middle of a conflict between two school districts that were merging. Many in the smaller school district were opposed to the merger. The Amish themselves wanted to be included in an area of the new district where one-room schools, which the Amish preferred, would still be operated. The Amish had also come under pressure from the state for failing to meet new teacher certification standards. Some say the Amish were convinced by the larger school superintendent to vote for the merger with the promise there would be one-room schools. The merger passed thanks to the Amish vote. But state inspectors visited the Amish schools and imposed fines against the Amish for using uncertified teachers. And that led to a pivotal moment on November 19, 1965. On that Friday morning, a yellow old wine school bus pulled up to the Amish school to take the children to a consolidated town school. Sobing parents were arrested for noncompliance with Iowa school law. Frightened children fled their school, running for cover in nearby cornfields. The iconic photos of the scene were on the front pages of major newspapers across the country the next morning. The governor intervened to calm the situation and eventually the state legislature changed the law, allowing religious exemptions from state school standards. And the conflict was a factor in the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Wisconsin versus Yoder, granting Amish and other groups religious exemptions from state mandated schooling standards. But the conflict between the Amish and their beliefs and state officials who wanted to force children to attend school in town came to a head near Hazleton on this state in 1965. And that's Iowa Almanac for November 19. There's more online at IowaAlmanac.com. Until tomorrow, I'm Jeff Stein.