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Evolution Controversy in NC in the 1920s

On January 8, 1925, Representative D. Scott Poole introduced a resolution in the North Carolina Legislature in which he proposed that it was "injurious to the welfare of the people" for public schools "to teach or permit to be taught, as a fact, either Darwinism or any other evolutionary hypotheses that links man in blood relationship with any lower form of life." Poole's resolution sparked a heated debate that would engage North Carolinians for the next two years.

This website presents a selection of primary source materials documenting the statewide debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools in the 1920s. Drawn primarily from the collections in Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, these materials will enable students, teachers, and researchers to read original sources and to study a question that captivated North Carolinians in the 1920s, and which still resonates today.