Butler Act
1925 Tennessee state law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in schools / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Butler Act was a 1925 Tennessee law prohibiting public school teachers from denying the book of Genesis account of mankind's origin. The law also prevented the teaching of the evolution of man from what it referred to as lower orders of animals in place of the Biblical account. The law was introduced by Tennessee House of Representatives member John Washington Butler, from whom the law got its name. It was enacted as Tennessee Code Annotated Title 49 (Education) Section 1922, having been signed into law by Tennessee governor Austin Peay.
Butler Act | |
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Tennessee General Assembly | |
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Passed by | Tennessee House of Representatives |
Passed by | Tennessee Senate |
Signed by | Governor Austin Peay |
Signed | March 21, 1925 |
Repealed | September 1, 1967 |
Legislative history | |
First chamber: Tennessee House of Representatives | |
Bill citation | House Bill No. 185 |
Introduced by | John Washington Butler |
Introduced | January 21, 1925 |
Committee responsible | House Committee on Education |
Passed | January 28, 1925 |
Voting summary |
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Second chamber: Tennessee Senate | |
Committee responsible | Senate Judiciary Committee |
Passed | March 13, 1925 |
Voting summary |
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Repealed by | |
Chapter No. 237, House Bill No. 48 | |
Status: Repealed |
The law was challenged later that year in a famous trial in Dayton, Tennessee called the Scopes Trial which included a raucous confrontation between prosecution attorney and fundamentalist religious leader, William Jennings Bryan, and noted defense attorney and religious agnostic, Clarence Darrow. It was repealed in 1967.