1920's Education | Scopes v. Tennessee

Court case

By: Grafton Green

Date: January 17, 1927

Source: Scopes v. Tennessee, 154 Tenn. 105 (1927). Reprinted in The South Western Reporter vol. 289. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing, 1927.

About the Author: Grafton Green (1872–1947) graduated from Cumberland University and was admitted to the Tennessee Bar Association in 1893. He practiced general law in Nashville until becoming a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1910. Green served as chief justice from 1923 to 1947, the longest tenure of any judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Introduction

In 1925, the Tennessee legislature passed the Butler Act, making it illegal, in any school supported by public funds, "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." The...