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. Image File history File links Tennesseestateseallrg. ... The Tennessee General Assembly is the formal name of the legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... is the 80th day of the year (81st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Tennessee House of Representatives, in American politics, is the lower house of the state legislature of Tennessee, formally called the Tennessee General Assembly. ... John Washington Butler (1875-1952) was an American farmer and representative for Tennessee, most noted for introducing the Butler Act which prohibited teaching of evolution in public (i. ... is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Tennessee House of Representatives, in American politics, is the lower house of the state legislature of Tennessee, formally called the Tennessee General Assembly. ... is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the formal name of the Tennessee state legislature. ... is the 72nd day of the year (73rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the university in Clarksville, Tennessee named for former governor of Tennessee Austin Peay. ... is the 80th day of the year (81st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... The Education Act 1944 changed the education system for secondary schools in England and Wales. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... The term public school has three distinct meanings: In the USA and Canada, elementary or secondary school supported and administered by state and local officials. ... Creationism is a religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in their original form by a deity or deities (often the Abrahamic God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam), whose existence is presupposed. ... This article is about modern humans. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... For the history of humans on Earth, see History of the world. ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... For other uses, see Plant (disambiguation). ...

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. For the community in Florida, see University, Florida. ... A normal school or teachers college is an educational institution for training teachers. ... The term public school has three distinct meanings: In the USA and Canada, elementary or secondary school supported and administered by state and local officials. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ...

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. This article is about the biological superfamily. ... Leishmania donovani, (a species of protozoan) in a bone marrow cell (in Greek proto = first and zoa = animals) are one-celled eukaryotes (that is, unicellular microbes whose cells have membrane-bound nuclei) that commonly show characteristics usually associated with animals, mobility and heterotrophy. ... Genetic variation is the variation in the genetic material of a population, and includes the nuclear, mitochodrial, ribosomal genomes as well as the genomes of other organelles. ... For other uses, see Natural selection (disambiguation). ... This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Earth as seen from Apollo 17 Modern geologists consider the age of the Earth to be around 4. ... For other uses, see Genesis (disambiguation). ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... John Washington Butler (1875-1952) was an American farmer and representative for Tennessee, most noted for introducing the Butler Act which prohibited teaching of evolution in public (i. ... For other persons of the same name, see William Bryan. ... For other people of the same surname, and places and things named after Charles Darwin, see Darwin. ... Charles Darwins Origin of Species (publ. ... Title page of the first edition of Charles Darwins The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. ...

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." is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Tennessee House of Representatives, in American politics, is the lower house of the state legislature of Tennessee, formally called the Tennessee General Assembly. ... The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the formal name of the Tennessee state legislature. ... is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... March 10 is the 69th day of the year (70th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 72nd day of the year (73rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Medieval artistic representation of a spherical Earth - with compartments representing earth, air, and water (c. ...

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. The Tennessee General Assembly is the formal name of the legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... Notes 1East was Secretary of State for Tennessee from 1862-1865, appointed by Andrew Johnson, the military governor of the state under Union occupation during the American Civil War. ... This article is about the university in Clarksville, Tennessee named for former governor of Tennessee Austin Peay. ... is the 80th day of the year (81st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Zoology (from Greek: ζῴον, zoion, animal; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. ... The University of Tennessee (UT), sometimes called the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UT Knoxville or UTK), is the flagship institution of the statewide land-grant University of Tennessee public university system in the American state of Tennessee. ...

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: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American organization consisting of two separate entities. ... The Scopes Trial (, often called the Scopes Monkey Trial) was an American legal case that tested a law passed on March 13, 1925, which forbade the teaching, in any state-funded educational establishment in Tennessee, of any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught... John Thomas Scopes (August 3, 1900 – October 21, 1970), a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee at the age of 24, was charged on May 25, 1925 with violating Tennessees Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools. ... is the 125th day of the year (126th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 145th day of the year (146th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Tennessee Supreme Court is the highest appellate court of the State of Tennessee. ... The Tennessee State Constitution defines the form, structure, activities, character, and fundamental rules (and means for changing them) of the U.S. State of Tennessee. ...

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." This article is about evolution in biology. ...

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. Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... “First Amendment” redirects here. ... Citizens of the United States often treat free speech as a fundamental right and often a matter of patriotism. ...

See also

• Scopes Trial

The Scopes Trial (, often called the Scopes Monkey Trial) was an American legal case that tested a law passed on March 13, 1925, which forbade the teaching, in any state-funded educational establishment in Tennessee, of any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught...

References

• "Author of the Law Surprised by Fuss", The New York Times (18 July 1925), page 1.

The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally. ... is the 199th day of the year (200th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Full text of the Butler Act and the bill that repealed it