13. The Butler Act in Tennessee prohibited the teaching of evolution
John Washington Butler was a member of the Tennessee legislature who introduced a bill known as the Butler Act in 1925. It was his belief that, “the Bible is the foundation upon which our American Government is built”. Butler also asserted that the “evolutionist who denies the Biblical story of creation, as well as other Biblical accounts, cannot be a Christian’. The Butler Act, passed by the Tennessee legislature and signed into law in 1925 by Governor Austin Peay, made the teaching of evolution in schools within the state illegal. The Genesis account was the only basis of creation allowed in Tennessee schools.
The law was challenged following the Scopes trial (also known as the Monkey trial), when the verdict convicting a teacher for presenting evolutionary theory was overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Though the verdict was overturned on a procedural technicality, the law itself was upheld, encouraging fundamentalists in other states to lobby for similar laws, which denied Darwinism and upheld the use of the Bible as the only source for the origination of the universe, and of humanity. The Butler Act remained in force in Tennessee until 1967. It was repealed by the Tennessee legislature that year, though similar laws remained in effect in several southern states.
