I am currently holed up just outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, doing some research on the University of North Carolina’s role in opposing an anti-evolution bill that was introduced in the legislature during 1925 (at about the same time that one was introduced in neighboring Tennessee).

Between 1920 and 1924, North Carolina’s governor was Cameron Morrison. Morrison, although a conservative, poured millions of dollars during his adminisration into upgrading the state’s roads and schools. His support for education did not extend towards the teaching of evolution in biology classes, however. Early in 1924, Morrison intervened in the state’s text book commission to remove two biology textbooks from recommendation on the charge that they taught evolution.  This won him great favor with a local fundamentalist evangelical minister. 

While looking through some of Morrison’s stuff I came across an address that he gave to the graduating class of 1921 at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (the state-sponsored university). During the address, Morrison gives some advice to the graduating students for becoming good citizens of the great state of North Carolina. Above all else, he said:

…settle your religious beliefs…The man or woman who has no religion must of necessity be of an uncertain, halting, and stumbling character. Before a man or woman can be adjusted to this life, it is necessary to determine, not what church to join, but what they do by which they are willing to live and die. The man or woman who goes through life without settling this all-important question lives very closely to the life of an animal. Of course, I think that consideration of this great problem will result in accepting the religion of the Christian….[young men and women must] first fix their religious principles, and then their political principles….I implore you to study the principles of the Christian religion, and the principles of our great democratic, or republican, form of government. The devotion to these great principles will cause every virture to flower in your life.”

I can hardly imagine a state governor giving an address like this at a state university today, but in 1921 this probably would have seemed rather mild, especially in the South. For many political leaders in those days, separation of church and state meant not favoring any particular Christian denomination over other Christian denominations. Thus, you can see how Morrison is careful to keep his religious comments as non-sectarian as possible – even though he expliclitly promotes Christianity. It is assumed that you should be a Christian and, therefore, your task would be to eventually identify with a particular brand of Christianity.

It would be tempting to say that this was the kind of minset that opponents of the anti-evolution legilsation had to contend with – but opponents of the legislation largely shared the same mindset (including the President of UNC, who was a vigorous opponent)! Such a fact helps illustrate that the evolution controversy in places such as North Caronlia during the 1920s was a controversy among conservative and liberal versions of Christianity and not merely one of science versus religion. More often than not, Protestant Christianity was a common denominator.