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Title: National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom Records, 1984-2020
ID: MSS/MSS-0015
Extent: 2.0 Cubic Feet
Administrative/Biographical History
The National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom (NCARF) was founded by non-Amish people at the University of Chicago in 1967, with a goal to preserve “the religious liberty of the Old Order Amish (and related Anabaptist groups, including Mennonites).” A pivotal court case involving the National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom (NCARF) was Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972). The court case was brought about to prevent the state government from forcing Amish families to educate their children beyond the eighth grade.
Scope and Contents: The National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom (NCARF) Records includes legal correspondence, court documents, newspaper articles and other materials pertaining to Amish people who have been involved in court proceedings. Includes correspondence to and from Donald B. Kraybill, Ph.D., former professor at Elizabethtown College and a Senior Fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. The collection includes court documents pertaining to Amish and Mennonite people in multiple states including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Mississippi, Michigan, Indiana, New York, Ohio, and the Commonwealths of Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Cases vary widely in subject matter. Some examples include slow moving vehicle emblems on horse and buggies, religious freedom cases, school sanitation regulations and public sewer projects, zoning ordinances and urban development in counties with high Amish populations, Chesapeake Bay pollution management, questions regarding the legality of Pennsylvania Amish schools, the “Amish Act” (social security child tax credit exemption), shunning cases, accusations of abuse in the Amish community, television shows and movies that portray Amish people, child custody disputes, child labor law violations, and photo ID requirements for the Amish. Papers belonging to Dr. Joe Wittmer, who was raised Old Order Amish and served as Vice-Chair of the National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom, are included in box 2, folders 22-33.
