Background
As Philadelphia became industrialized, immigrants from England, Ireland, and Germany settled in the city and the surrounding districts. Once it began, the potato famine increased immigration from Ireland, although this largely occurred after the Philadelphia riots. In the areas the immigrants settled, tensions that resulted from religious, economic and cultural differences grew between residents. The majority of immigrants coming to Philadelphia were Catholic. Alarmed by the rising Catholic population, Protestant Irish and native-born Americans started organizing anti-Catholic and nativist groups. The groups, many of which were established in the early 1840s, distributed anti-Catholic literature or published anti-Catholic newspapers.
During the 1840s, students in Philadelphia schools began the day with reading the Protestant version of the Bible. On November 10, 1842, Philadelphia's Roman Catholic Bishop, Francis Kenrick, wrote a letter to the Board of Controllers of public schools, asking that Catholic children be allowed to read the Douai version of the Bible, used by Roman Catholics. He also asked that they be excused from other religious teaching while at school. As a result, the Board of Controllers ordered that no child should be forced to participate in religious activities and stated that children were allowed whichever version of the Bible their parents wished.
Approximately one year later, a rumor was circulated that Hugh Clark, a Kensington school director who was Catholic, was visiting a girls school, where he demanded that the principal stop Bible reading in school. The story also claimed that the principal refused and that she would rather lose her job. Hugh Clark denied this version of events and claimed that after finding out several students had left a Bible reading to read a different version of the Bible, he commented that if reading the Bible caused this kind of confusion, that it would be better if it was not read. Anti-Catholics used the story to spur anti-Catholic sentiments by claiming that Catholics, with direct influence from the Pope, were trying to remove the Bible from schools. Anti-Catholic and nativist groups further inflamed hostile feelings towards Catholics by twisting Bishop Kenrick's requests to the Board of Controllers into an attack against the Bible.
Read more about this topic: Philadelphia Nativist Riots
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