The case was prosaically listed ". . . Vashti McCollum v. Board of Education . . ." but it had some of the same features that made the Scopes "monkey trial" a sideshow of the '20s. And, though the decision would immediately affect only the citizens of Champaign, Ill. (pop.
23,000), the case involved a basic educational issue: should religion be taught in public schools? The McCollum in the case was the slight, 32-year-old wife of an assistant professor of horticulture at the University of Illinois, Mrs. Vashti McCollum. Last year, she complained, her son Terry had been "embarrassed" and "ostracized" by...