Butler Act
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| Butler Act | |
| Full title | AN ACT prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof |
| Enacted by the | 64th Tennessee General Assembly |
| Effective | March 21, 1925 |
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The Butler Act was a 1925 Tennessee law forbidding public school teachers to deny the literal Biblical account of man’s origin and to teach in its place the evolution of man from lower orders of animals. The law did not prohibit the teaching of any evolutionary theory of any other species of plant or animal.
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[edit] Provisions of the law
The law, "AN ACT prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof" (Tenn. HB 185, 1925) specifically provided:
- "That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the Story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals."[1]
It additionally outlined that an offending teacher would be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined between $100 and $500 for each offense.
By the terms of the statute, it could be argued, it was not illegal to teach that apes descended from protozoa, to teach the mechanisms of variation and natural selection, or to teach the prevailing scientific theories of geology or the age of the Earth. It did not even require that the Genesis story be taught. It prohibited only the teaching that man evolved, or any other theory denying that man was created by God as recorded in Genesis. However the author of the law, a Tennessee farmer named John Washington Butler, specifically intended that it would prohibit the teaching of evolution. He later was reported to have said, "No, I didn't know anything about evolution when I introduced it. I'd read in the papers that boys and girls were coming home from school and telling their fathers and mothers that the Bible was all nonsense." After reading copies of William Jennings Bryan's lecture "Is the Bible True?" as well as Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man, Butler decided evolution was dangerous.
[edit] Origin of the law
Butler presented his bill on January 21, 1925 (Chapter 117, House Bill 198, by Mr. Butler, Public Acts of Tennessee for 1925). The committee on education recommended Bill 198 for passage on January 23. On January 28, the House passed Butler's Bill 71 to 5. In the Senate another anti-evolution bill was already meeting stiff opposition from the judiciary committee where it was referred for consideration. On January 29, aware the House had already voted on Butler's bill, the committee recommended rejection of the other bill by a vote of 5 to 4 and it was not until March 10 that the Senate judiciary committee recommended 7-4 for the Butler Act to be passed. On March 13 the Tennessee Senate debated the Butler Act. One senator endeavored to ridicule the bill by attaching an amendment to also "prohibit the teaching that the earth is round," but was ruled out of order by the speaker. Finally, the Butler bill was passed by the Senate 24 to 6, with one senator "present and not voting."
Reportedly dismayed the legislature had passed the bill but needing the support of rural legislators for educational reform, Governor Austin Peay signed the Butler Act into law on March 21. Peay told the press: "After a careful examination, I can find nothing of consequence in the books now being taught in our schools with which this bill will interfere in the slightest manner. Therefore, it will not put our teachers in jeopardy. Probably the law will never be applied." A Tennessee lawyer, in an often quoted line, said: "The Legislature did not know it passed the fool thing." However it was several weeks before a single educator could be induced to express an opinion on the subject, and the head of the zoology department at the University of Tennessee refused to show his zoology textbooks to reporters. The University's president secretly issued unofficial instructions to his faculty to make no changes in their instruction.
[edit] Challenges
The law was challenged by the ACLU in the famed Scopes Trial, in which John Scopes, a high school sports coach who occasionally acted as a substitute teacher, agreed to be arrested on a charge of having taught evolution, and was nominally served a warrant on May 5, 1925. Scopes was indicted on May 25 and ultimately convicted; on appeal the Tennessee Supreme Court found the law to be constitutional under the Tennessee State Constitution, because:
| “ | We are not able to see how the prohibition of teaching the theory that man has descended from a lower order of animals gives preference to any religious establishment or mode of worship. So far as we know, there is no religious establishment or organized body that has in its creed or confession of faith any article denying or affirming such a theory. | ” |
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—Scopes v. State 289 S.W. 363, 367 (Tenn. 1927) |
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Despite this decision, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the conviction on a technicality (that the jury should have fixed the amount of the fine), and the case was not retried. During the trial, Butler told reporters: "I never had any idea my bill would make a fuss. I just thought it would become a law, and that everybody would abide by it and that we wouldn't hear any more of evolution in Tennessee."
The law remained on the books until 1967, when a dismissed teacher complained that it violated his First Amendment right to free speech. Fearing another courtroom fiasco, the Tennessee legislature repealed the law.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- "Author of the Law Surprised by Fuss", The New York Times (18 July 1925), page 1.
