John Washington Butler
Encyclopedia
John Washington Butler was an American
farmer and a member of the Tennessee
House of Representatives
. He is most noted for introducing the Butler Act
, which prohibited teaching of evolution
in public (i.e. state) schools (and which was challenged in the Scopes Trial
). He was an admirer of William Jennings Bryan
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
farmer and a member of the Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
House of Representatives
Tennessee House of Representatives
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional requirements:...
. He is most noted for introducing the Butler Act
Butler Act
The Butler Act was a 1925 Tennessee law prohibiting public school teachers from denying the Biblical account of man’s origin. It was enacted as Tennessee Code Annotated Title 49 Section 1922...
, which prohibited teaching of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
in public (i.e. state) schools (and which was challenged in the Scopes Trial
Scopes Trial
The Scopes Trial—formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and informally known as the Scopes Monkey Trial—was a landmark American legal case in 1925 in which high school science teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act which made it unlawful to...
). He was an admirer of William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
.
External links
- http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=B119
- http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/SCO_BUT.HTM