An anonymous artist has touched up the rubble before publication in this original 1940 press photograph of a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall which was attacked by a mob in Kennebunk, Maine. I guess the photograph wasn't rubbly enough. The mugs standing around are. The photo editor has touched up a few creased pants too...pictures DO lie.
That year, the Supreme Court ruled a school district could require students to salute the flag. The Jehovah's had a problem with that…and numerous mobs had a problem with the Jehovah's. The ruling unleashed a torrent of attacks on those who practiced the religion.
According to Wiki, the case "... resulted in a wave of persecution against Jehovah's Witnesses. Lillian Gobitas later characterized the violence as "open season on Jehovah’s Witnesses." The American Civil Liberties Union recorded 1,488 attacks on Witnesses in over 300 communities between May and October 1940. Angry mobs assaulted Witnesses, destroyed their property, boycotted their businesses and vandalized their places of worship. Less than a week after the court decision, a Kingdom Hall in Kennebunk, Maine was burnt down."
Well, it's still standing, so it wasn't "burnt down" but it certainly looks like there wasn't a whole lot of religious tolerance going on.
