In the early 1920s, a number of Oregonians sought to prevent churches and private schools from providing primary education. This movement was directed primarily at Roman Catholic schools and reflected a renewal of anti-immigrant and nativist agitation in the U.S. following the first world war. Closely related to this movement was the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, which was generally hostile to Roman Catholics, as well as Jews and Black people. In the fall of 1922, Oregon voters were presented with a ballot initiative known as the Compulsory Education Bill. The bill proposed to make it a misdemeanor for any parent or guardian of a child between the ages of eight and sixteen to fail to send the child to a public school. The bill was openly supported by the Klan, the Scottish Rite Masons, and by gubernatorial candidate Walter Pierce, who was elected to office that year. It was opposed by many churches and religious organizations, including the Lutheran Schools Committee. Principal leaders of the Committee were Paul J. Hillman, principal of the Zion Lutheran School in Portland, and clergyman R. G. Messerli. The measure passed by a comfortable majority, but it was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1925, on an appeal brought by the Hill Military Academy of Portland and the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.