Author of 'Pledge of Allegiance,' published 128 years ago, lived out his final days in Tampa

TAMPA, Fla. - On September 8, 1892, the "Pledge of Allegiance" was published for the very first time. Francis J. Bellamy is credited with writing those 31 poignant, powerful words that have been recited for nearly 130 years. 

But you may not know that the author has a Tampa connection. He spent his last years living in the city.

Bellamy, born in 1855, published the original Pledge of Allegiance in The Youth's Companion children's magazine as part of a program for public schools to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day.

"What they came up with was this flag contest where they would try to get flags in as many classrooms as possible, particularly elementary school, primary school classrooms," said Dr. Ben Railton, author of 'Of Thee I Sing: The Contested History of American Patriotism.' "Bellamy, I think more on his own, decided he wanted to write something to go along with that flag."

"It's definitely the side of what I would call 'celebratory patriotism,'" Railton continued, "the idea of kind of embracing American ideals and creating a performance, this ritual performance for school kids in particular."

Bellamy was a Baptist minister and "called himself a Christian socialist very fully," Railton added.

Though he spent much of his life in upstate New York, he moved to Tampa in 1924.

"I think that's something that is not very well known," said Rodney Kite-Powell, curator at the Tampa Bay History Center. "He moved here, seemingly for job in the publicity department of Tampa Electric Company  

Bellamy also worked at Tampa Gas and had a home on Wallcraft Avenue. Today, at the corner of Wallcraft and Bayshore Boulevard, you'll find "Bellamy" on Bayshore condos and a historical marker honoring the "most neglected patriot in American history" and his pledge.

"It was a response to the Civil War, it was a response to those divisions. It was, I would say, certainly, it was a response to those inequalities that he was so passionate about in the gilded age and the late 19th century," Railton said. "He definitely saw it as inspirational, like, America wasn't there yet. America could get there."

The pledge has changed over 128 years. The salute was replaced with hands over hearts. The original 22 words grew to 31.

"The other biggest change, obviously, is the addition of the phrase 'under God' in 1954 at the kind of urging of the Knights of Columbus," Railton said, "and one that Francis Bellamy's granddaughter did really object to, saying that he believed in a really clear separation between church and state."

Bellamy died in Tampa in 1931 at age 76. His pledge lives on in schools like Francis Bellamy Elementary on Wilsky Boulevard, painted with stars and stripes and the original 22 words. 

"As we as a nation come to look back on our history, the good sides of our history, the faults in our history and the faults in people, it's these people that have come before that have shaped where we are," Kite-Powell added.

Tampa Historical Society unveiled Bellamy's marker in 1974. As the marker reads, the Tampa Tribune editorialized that his pledge "will go on through centuries serving the nation he loved."