In this file photo, Aubrey Blair holds the flag as she and fellow students recite the Pledge of Allegiance at a school on Dec. 17, 2018. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Voters in Alabama will decide on the fate of a pair of amendments to the state’s constitution that would require schools to play the "Star Spangled Banner" each week, have students recite the Pledge of Allegiance daily, and allow for student-led prayer in the classroom.
Both amendments will be on ballots in the Yellowhammer State in the Nov. 3 general election.
What we know:
Alabama’s Fair Ballot Commission said Amendment Three to the state constitution would require local boards of education to adopt policies to require each public K-12 school to recite The Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag at the beginning of each school day. It would give students the opportunity to voluntarily recite the pledge.
That same amendment would also require boards to create a policy to allow student-initiated and student-led prayer.
Amendment Four would require school boards to have each public school broadcast or sanction the performance of the first stanza of the national anthem at least once per week during school hours.
A local board of education could also allow the first stanza to be performed during school hours by "a school-approved band, choir, vocal group or vocalist" using the version archived by the Library of Congress.
The backstory:
The national anthem, penned by Francis Scott Key in 1814, has four stanzas but usually only the first stanza is ever sung at public performances.
Baptist minister Brancis Bellamy of Boston wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. He created it as part of a school flag-raising ceremony to mark the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in America.
The original words were:
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Twelve million schoolchildren would recite it for the first time on Columbus Day, Oct. 12, 1892.
In 1924, the American Legion and The 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." They took the stance over concerns that immigrants might actually be saluting the flags of their home countries in 1924.
Thirty years later, the Knights of Columbus and other religious groups pressured Congress to aff the words "under God" to the pledge in 1954.
Since that year, the pledge reads:
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.
By the numbers:
If voters approve the amendment authorizing the weekly performance of the national anthem in schools or the amendment requiring the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, Alabama would appear to become the first state to have Constitutional amendments on either topic.
Several states have statutes on the books involving the playing of the national anthem.
Alabama already has a law requiring its schools to begin each day with the Pledge of Allegiance. State Code section 16-43-5 requires that all public kindergarten, primary, and secondary students must have the chance to "voluntarily recite" the pledge.
The National Conference of State Legislatures lists only five states — Arizona, Hawaii, Nebraska, Vermont and Wyoming — as having no laws concerning the pledge in schools.
Of the remaining 45, eight — California, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nevada and New Mexico — set aside school time for the Pledge of Allegiance without specific exemptions. The remaining states set aside school time but allow for specific exemptions for students, such as a note from a parent or allowing students to simply stand quietly without saluting the flag or speaking the words.
Why you should care:
Despite the various state laws, it is illegal for a student to be required to participate in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
"A student who refuses to recite the pledge of allegiance may not be punished or penalized for that refusal," Alabama’s state law on the pledge states.
Two U.S. Supreme Court rulings preserve students’ First Amendment protections with respect to the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer in schools.
The 1943 decision in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette struck down a state law requiring students to salute the U.S. flag.
The 1985 ruling in Wallace v. Jaffree struck down an Alabama law that permitted any teacher or professor in a public educational institution to lead a prayer for students willing to participate.
Alabama’s proposed constitutional amendment would allow voluntary participation in student-initiated and student-led prayer. No student, under law, could be required to participate in the prayer and students would have the right to opt out of participating in the Pledge of Allegiance or the prayer based on their own beliefs, the ballot statement reads.
The Source: Information in this story came from the Alabama Fair Ballot Commission, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Constitution Center, Ballotpedia, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and previous FOX News coverage. This story was reported from Orlando.