Governor Austin Peay – signed, Mar. 13, 1925

On this date 3/13 in 1925 Governor Austin Peay (6/1/1876 – 10/2/1927) of Tennessee (elected 1922, 1924, 1926) signed the Butler Act into law making it “unlawful for any teacher [in the state educational system] to teach any theory that denied the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible.”  The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) [a misnomer?] announced it would back a person challenging the constitutionality of the act.  They found “their man” (man defending monkey) in John Thomas Scopes (1900-1970).  The Scopes Monkey Trial has been called “trial of the century” and pitted Clarence Darrow against three time Democratic Presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan.  Bryan won.

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