<P> Anti-Catholicism was widespread in the 1920s; anti-Catholics, including the Ku Klux Klan, believed that Catholicism was incompatible with democracy and that parochial schools encouraged separatism and kept Catholics from becoming loyal Americans . The Catholics responded to such prejudices by repeatedly asserting their rights as American citizens and by arguing that they, not the nativists (anti-Catholics), were true patriots since they believed in the right to freedom of religion . </P> <P> The 1928 presidential campaign of Al Smith was a rallying point for the Klan and the tide of anti-Catholicism in the U.S. The Catholic Church of the Little Flower was first built in 1925 in Royal Oak, Michigan, a largely Protestant area . Two weeks after it opened, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in front of the church . The church burned down in a fire in 1936 . In response, the church built a fireproof crucifixion tower, as a "cross they could not burn". </P> <P> In 1922, the voters of Oregon passed an initiative amending Oregon Law Section 5259, the Compulsory Education Act . The law unofficially became known as the Oregon School Law . The citizens' initiative was primarily aimed at eliminating parochial schools, including Catholic schools . The law caused outraged Catholics to organize locally and nationally for the right to send their children to Catholic schools . In Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), the United States Supreme Court declared the Oregon's Compulsory Education Act unconstitutional in a ruling that has been called "the Magna Carta of the parochial school system ." </P> <P> In 1928, Al Smith became the first Roman Catholic to gain a major party's nomination for president, and his religion became an issue during the campaign . Many Protestants feared that Smith would take orders from church leaders in Rome in making decisions affecting the country . </P>

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